Profilers of SHIELD
by evgrrl09
Summary: When a new supervillain emerges, a new hero and recruit to S.H.I.E.L.D. demands the BAU be called in to assist in stopping this unsub from enslaving the worlds' minds. The Behavioral Analysis Unit meets the Strategic Homeland Intervention, Enforcement, and Logistics Division. Romances include: Morgan/Garcia and new pairings JJ/Ironman and Reid/Black Widow.
1. Prologue

**Disclaimer: I own nothing.**

**So I have decided to embark on the crossover story of my career: AVENGERS AND CRIMINAL MINDS. Yes, I have decided to go there. In this tale we'll have an unsub who is also a super villain (much in the same way Tobias Hankle, Billy Flynn, or the Replicator could be considered), one of our favorite profiling hunks becoming a superhero, and, of course, some budding romances. Though not many will read this one because it's a crossover, I'm going to have the time of my life posting it, and hopefully all of you who do stumble upon it will enjoy :)**

**Many thanks to CeeCee333 for helping me beta this story!**

_Quantico, Virginia_

"Talia! Tal, are you ready and dressed? The pancakes are gonna be cold if you don't hurry up," Penelope Morgan called up the stairs of her house to her six year old daughter. Today was Talia's first day of first grade, and both Penelope and her husband, Derek were taking her to school to see her off.

Talia appeared at the top of the stairs, her hair in a braid and her Disney princess backpack bouncing on her back as she trotted down the stairs. A smile was lighting up her face, her dimples standing at attention. Already the little girl looked exactly like her mother, only with darker features. And though she looked like a mini Penelope, her personality was nearly identical to Derek; she was fearless. "I just brushed my teeth, Mama!"

Penelope smiled and kissed her daughter's forehead. "Good work, sweetheart," she said, patting her daughter's cheek. She glanced around as she and Talia entered the kitchen. There was no sign of Derek anywhere. "Hot Stuff?" she called, heading to the archway that led to the living room. Still there was no sign of him. "Derek honey, where are you?" Rolling her eyes when she still received no answer, she went back into the kitchen and started serving pancakes onto her daughter's plate. She smiled as she added some fruit next to the pancakes, then leaned on her elbows on the counter. "You ready for your first day, sweetie?"

"Yep," Talia said, nodding vigorously. She took a gulp of her juice. "Will Daddy be home when I get home?"

"Well, it all depends if he has to go on a trip," Penelope responded. "Uncle Hotch didn't know if they have a case." As she was about to say more, a pair of strong arms wrapped around her from behind and a gentle kiss was placed on her neck. Had she not recognized the strength of the grip around her she might have jumped in surprise. However, she knew at once that it was Derek who was holding her, and it came as no surprise at all. Closing her eyes, a purr escaped her lips and she murmured, "And speak of the devil…"

Derek's deep laugh filled her ears. "Devil, huh?" he asked.

Talia giggled. "Daddy's not the devil, Mama." She hopped off her stool at the counter and went to throw her arms around Derek's waist. "Hi, Daddy!" she chirped.

He let go of Penelope to lean down and hoist his daughter in his arms. Kissing her cheek, he said, "Morning, Baby Doll. You ready to go to school?"

"Mama already asked me that," she said as she was set back down on her feet. With a bright grin that rivaled her father's in brilliance, she added, "And the answer is yeah."

Penelope smiled at her husband and daughter as they both ate their pancakes. She was so glad the team wasn't on a case so that Derek could be there to see Talia off to school. In all likelihood, they would get one when they got to the round table room, but until then they were just the Morgans, no FBIs or SSAs attached to their names.

"Alright, you two," she said, planting kisses on both their cheeks. "Let's get moving."

XXXXX

_Elsewhere in Quantico, Virginia_

JJ stood at the coffeemaker, pouring herself a travel mug of the steaming liquid. It was a quiet morning before she had to be in at the office. Henry had been with Will over Labor Day, and therefore he was getting taken to school by him as well. She'd ended up spending the brief weekend holiday with the Morgans, the Hotchner boys, and Reid. And even though she'd been with her friends, she'd felt more lonely than she'd ever felt in her entire life.

The divorce that had gone on between her and Will was miserable. They'd been fighting for over a year, constant fights that sometimes made her feel more drained than a rough case. So in a year earlier, they decided to call it quits. It had torn her life in two, not because she missed Will, but because of her son. Henry was now spending every other weekend with his father, and with the case load she had on top of that, she was seeing him less and less.

She thought of the rest of her team. Morgan and Garcia were still happily married after three years of marriage and a child, Hotch and Beth had Jack and were expecting another baby by the start of the next year, Blake and her husband were still together — no matter how far apart they were — Rossi and Strauss had…something, and Reid seemed quite content on his own.

As she put the lid on top of her mug, she turned around and stared briefly around her completely empty kitchen. Silence was the only sound surrounding her. The fridge was the only bright spot, covered in pictures of her and Henry. She was so proud of her ten year old. She didn't know how, but the divorce seemed to be effecting him in meager ways. It was almost as if he had known something like this would happen. Heading into the living room, she flipped on the television to check the news before she went to work. The first thing, of course, had to do with the insane American politics going on. She stared at the screen mutely, not really caring very much about it much. However, one of the next things that appeared was a new press conference, conducted by Tony Stark.

For some reason this caught her attention.

Ever since the discovery of aliens and the near destruction of New York City, the whole world had been buzzing about the real-live superheroes that lived in the world. Who would have thought?

On the subject of Tony Stark though, she recalled his womanizing behavior, his cocky and narcissistic behavior, and his involvement with the weapons industry. How could people _not _have heard his name? Even young kids, like Henry, were crazy about him.

"_Mom, when I grow, I want to be just like Ironman," he stated. "Or Thor! They're so cool."_

"_Honey, you don't want to be like Ironman," she said with a laugh. "He's not a very nice guy. He's self-absorbed. You don't want to be that way."_

_He merely shrugged. "He's still super cool."_

Rolling her eyes, she flipped the TV off and rose to her feet. She didn't have time for that shit. Time to get going to work. _That _she did have time for.

XXXXX

_Malibu, California_

Tony Stark sat in his garage, tinkering around with his machines and cars. Lately, since Pepper had left him, he'd been spending the majority of his time in his basement, only Jarvis for company. Rhody stopped by every now and then, but it was only to make sure he was alive.

The rare moments he got out, he gave the reporters cocky assessments of the incident in New York that he didn't actually mean. He also spent countless hours at the casino, drinking and gambling, adding two or three women to his arm. He was in a downward spiral essentially. Pepper hadn't been able to handle the stress of being with him, so she'd left. He had no idea where she went, but after a little while of searching for her off the grid, he gave up. She didn't want to be found, so he would give her space. He needed time to work on himself anyway. After going through the wormhole, he wasn't the same.

Maybe Pepper wasn't what he needed for that.

But that begged the question: who was what he needed for that?

"Sir, does this work on these cars actually have any purpose?" Jarvis, his computerized system, said, his voice breaking through his current tranquil state.

He rolled his eyes at his high tech computer, but continued turning his wrench. "I'm just keeping busy," he said. "So no, there is no point really. It's just how I'm choosing to spend my time."

"Do you want me to try and call Ms. Potts?"

Tony's head shot up, and he snapped, "No. Why the hell would I try that again? She very clearly doesn't want to be found, so I'm not going to push it."

"Have you decided what you're going to do about the panic attacks? They are coming more frequently."

"Yes, thank you for that little bit of information," he said in annoyance. "I'm pretty sure I know when my own fucking body is having a panic attack!"

"Have you considered contacting S.H.I.E.L.D. to ask for their assistance? Surely they'll know some —"

He dropped his wrench abruptly and hissed angrily, "Jarvis, do I need to turn you off?"

"Sir, I'm just trying to help."

"Yeah, well help a little less," he said. Rubbing his slightly sweaty face, he started for the stairs. "I'm going to take a shower. Turn off the lights in here, would you?"

"Of course, sir," the computer said respectively.

Using the keypad, he exited his garage and made his way up the stairs to his master bathroom to get a shower. Lately, he'd been nothing but depressed, trying to hide his pain in alcoholism and machines, particularly his suits. He'd been renovating them in case of another attack from space, but Thor had assured him if anything was to happen, he would be sure to warn them before anything could happen like what had happened New York.

Everything really had changed after the attack and the wormhole. He'd lost Pepper, he'd lost, what he felt like was, his sanity. He didn't know how to fix the spot he was in. Rhody assured him it wasn't through alcohol and gambling, but he didn't listen. Maybe it would be love with someone else, but he didn't know. He couldn't tell the future, so he didn't see any point in speculating. He would just bide his time, waiting for the world to need Ironman again. As far as he was concerned, that was all the world really needed him for.

Until that moment he was needed though, he would remain just as he was right then: Regularman.

XXXXX

_Beneath the Tower of London - London, England_

The pale, auburn haired woman stared at the global map she had tacked to the wall of her lair. It was dark and damp down beneath the Tower of London, but it was the best place she could hide. She'd been following leads all over the globe to find the Orb of Isis, and now she thought she'd finally found it. How could she not have figured out it was in the British Museum all this time? She scowled for her pure stupidity and moved on from the map to the portrait of the the Goddess Isis. The goddess was her inspiration; she was the patron of magic, after all.

"Bellaria?"

She turned from gazing at the portrait and focussed on her second in command, Nigel. He was a bald man with an eyepatch and an extremely muscular build. He could easily take down any opponent. The best part of him: he was fiercely loyal to her. He was also the only one who wasn't frightened of her eyes, her ice blue eyes that appeared almost white. They'd been a constant reason behind her emotional torture ever since she was a child. And it had only gotten worse when her magic and telepathy evolved through adolescence. Her parents had wanted to suppress her power, to keep her locked away from the world. But that wouldn't do for her. She refused to hide who she was. She didn't care what any of them, family or peers, thought of her. No longer was she going to constrict herself to what they all wanted. She would make them pay for how they treated her.

And with the Orb of Isis to magnify her powers to a global level, she would be able to take revenge on all of them. Every last one of them.

"What is it, Nigel?" she asked hardly. "Is everything going according to plan with the boys in the lab?"

He nodded. "Yes," he said. "The bombs will be ready any day now, and then we can strike the Clock Tower as planned."

She smirked slightly. "This will be an excellent way to distract them all from us taking the Orb," she said. "They won't know what hit them."

"Are you going for a high body count, or mostly shock value?" he asked her with a smirk.

"What do you think?" she snapped. "Of course we're going for a high body count." Smiling mischievously and added, "_And _shock value."

He grinned wickedly and nodded. "Well then, I look forward to this plan."


	2. New Cases

**Disclaimer: I own nothing.**

**Here's the second of my Avengers/Criminal Minds crossover. Hope you like it :) And no one kill me for how this goes…it may be slightly sad.**

**Many thanks once more to CeeCeee333 for her help on concocting this plot!**

_Headquarters of the Strategic Homeland Intervention, Enforcement, and Logistics Division_

Nick Fury sat at his desk and was glancing over his files when Agent Maria Hill knocked and entered with yet another stack of files for him. He rubbed his one good eye and looked up at her with exhaustion. "Hill," he said in greeting. "What have you got for me now?"

"Just another stack of potentials to look out for," she reported. "Our primary object of interest, Derek Morgan from Quantico is on the move again. His team is headed out on a bombing case in New York."

He nodded. "We need to keep the tabs on him," he said. "I'm still hoping we can approach him about joining us as an agent. He would make a great addition with you and Coulson."

Hill nodded. "We'll keep a close eye on him," she said. "He does have a family who would have to be taken into account, but I'm sure with the right coaxing we could get him to join." She set the rest of the files down on his desk in front of him. "Oh, and one more thing. The lab has been finishing up their version of Dr. Erskine's serum. We'll need someone to test it one, but it'll happen. Coulson is gonna start the search."

Fury nodded. "Good. Let's get this going. I want to find the right candidate…sooner rather than later."

"Yes, sir."

_Quantico, Virginia_

JJ smiled at Penelope and Derek as they entered the BAU level off the elevator, their hands entwined. Penelope was telling her husband something and making him laugh hysterically. It made JJ extremely thrilled to see her friends finally together and married, raising their beautiful daughter together who they had named her godmother of. Deep down, she felt somewhat envious of them, though. They had something she wished desperately that she would one day have again.

Then again, did she ever actually have that?

The arrived in and waved at her. "Hey, Jayje!" Penelope said brightly.

"How'd dropping off Talia go?" she asked them. "She handle it okay?"

Derek answered proudly. "She handled it like a champ," he said, holding his head high.

JJ nodded, a forlorn look covering her face. She wished she could have seen Henry off today, but Will had insisted on some father-son bonding time, and she wasn't in the mood to argue. Provided they didn't have a case, she would get to see him that afternoon.

"She's just like her Daddy like that," Penelope said happily, looking up at her much taller husband and touched his cheek. "She looks like me, but she's just like you."

Reid joined them, a steaming mug of coffee in his hand. He took a sip and leaned against his desk to join the conversation. "Hi all," he said, raising his mug to them. "Talking about the kids' first day of school? Both of them are extremely bright…I'm sure their first days will go just fine."

Penelope smiled broadly and nodded. "Yes, yes they are. Just wait…they'll both have perfect report cards by the end of the semester."

As they — mainly Penelope and Derek — were standing around, chatting lightly about the kids' first days of school, Hotch emerged from his office and looked out over the bullpen and them. "Let's get to the Round Table room. Garcia, we're presenting an emergency New York one. We'll need you to get some notes so that you can start working from here."

"You got it, sir," she said. "I'm just going to take my stuff to my office, and I'll be right there. I'll get my laptop and notepad, too." She hurried off in the direction of her office so that she could gather her things.

The team headed into the round table room. Already waiting in there for them were Rossi and Strauss. Something told JJ that this case was going to be bigger than normal ones. She sat down in the chair next to Reid and pulled out her tablet, somewhat depressed that they had a case. She had hoped she would be able to see Henry that night. It was clearly not going to happen _that_ night, though.

"Alright people," Hotch began, motioning for everyone to sit once Penelope had returned with her laptop and . "Chief Strauss is here today to present with me because this case came on very short notice and from the Director himself."

"What is it?" Rossi asked tensely, looking at his girlfriend. "If you're here, Erin, then it must be something serious."

She nodded. "Yes," she said. "It's very serious." She motioned for Hotch to begin showing through the slideshow and for the rest of the team to look on at their tablets. "What we have is a peculiar bombing case going on in New York City. In the last forty eight hours, three buildings have been hit, all of them during high traffic periods of the day."

"Terrorist group?" Reid asked, causing Penelope to worriedly look over at her husband. JJ remembered vividly the last time there had been a bombing in New York. Penelope had barely contained her rage the next time she saw Morgan after he'd driven that ambulance filled with C4 through the City. JJ didn't know if _anyone _would want to relive that part of their memories of Garcia.

Blake bit her lip and shook her head. "These attacks don't look like a terrorist group," she commented. "It doesn't seem like there were enough unsubs to be one. My guess is two or three people."

"As our bomb specialist, what do you make of their choice in bombs, Agent Morgan?" Strauss asked, looking in Derek's direction.

He shook his head. "They've used fire bombs," he commented. "Those aren't very common. But if they're going for a high body count, these more effective." He flipped through some slides on his tablet. "These areas…were any of them destroyed in the attack on New York?"

Strauss frowned. "Why might that be a factor?" she asked.

"Well, some people thought that this attack on New York was a _good _thing," he explained. "Maybe they want to see the buildings that were destroyed stay that way."

Penelope was scribbling something on her pad. "I'll look into it for you, Hot Stuff," she said, not even bothering to glance up at Strauss. JJ couldn't suppress a smirk at that. After they'd come clean and told everyone that a baby was on the way, Penelope and Derek had given up on trying to censor their behavior around others. It seemed fairly pointless, but Strauss still pinched her lips every time the two engaged in their usual flirting.

"Alright, while Garcia is doing that, we need to get to New York immediately," Hotch said. "We've got to get on this…fast. New York can't take much more explosions or destruction right now. These unsubs may not be aliens, but they're just as bad. Wheels up in twenty."

They all rose to their feet, JJ rather forlornly. Something told her this case was going to be longer than she wanted. Her movements were slower than usual while she packed up. Everyone exited the room to gather their things, but Rossi remained behind for a moment. "JJ?" he said softly.

She looked up at him and tilted her head to the side. "Huh?"

He looked at her tenderly. "Did Will not let you come with to take Henry to his first day?" he asked.

She cursed the intuition of her fellow profiler friends. It never ceased to amaze her how well they all knew each other. Sighing, she nodded. "Yeah," she muttered. "And I would have gotten to see him tonight if we didn't have to go on this case. Now, I don't know when I'll be able to see him next."

He put a hand on her shoulder. "We'll get this case going, and you'll be able to see him and spend tons of time with him." He tried to give her a comforting smile.

"Thanks, Rossi. Let's get going. The faster we get going, the faster we can stop these bastards ,and I can see my son."

Rossi grinned. "Atta girl."

XXXXX

As Derek was packing up his things to get going, Penelope sat against his desk and sternly lectured him. "If there is an ambulance filled with C4, you don't get into it," she said. "You don't set foot in it, you hear me?"

He looked up at her and fixed her with an arched brow. "Baby, I think I learned my lesson the last time when you decided to slap the shit out of me," he said. Seeing that she still looked worried, he took both her hands and cupped her cheek. "I _promise_ you I will never do something like that again. I've got you and Talia. I've learned to stop doing that stuff."

She smiled and kissed his palm. "You be safe out there, my big black twelve pack," she murmured. "I'll see you when you get home. And if you can, you should —"

"Skype with Tal," he finished for her. "I will."

Pecking his lips, she nodded in satisfaction. "Excellent."

XXXXX

_Malibu, California_

Tony was standing at his home bar, pouring himself yet another scotch for the night. It had been at least a week since he'd left his house, and the only human contact he had had was Rhody.

"_You gotta get out of here at some point, Tony," he scolded. "You've got to see some people."_

"_I've got Jarvis," he responded plainly. Pointing to his liquor bottles on the bar, he added, "Want some?"_

_Jarvis piped up. "As flattering as that is, sir, I am not a human being."_

"_Shut up, Jarvis," Tony snapped._

"_Yes, sir."_

_Rhody shook his head. "I'll pass on that drink." His phone rang, and he shook his head. "I have to go. But really…get out of the house."_

He didn't have it in him, though. He'd had a terrible anxiety attack the previous night. There was not going to be any going out for him for a long while.

"Sir, I would recommend halting the alcohol consumption after this drink," Jarvis advised.

"Fuck off, Jarvis," he slurred. "Not in the mood. At all."

"I apologize, sir," the computer said, keeping quiet after that.

Tony plopped back down on the couch and flipped on the huge flatscreen television in his living room. Channel surfing seemed about the only thing he could manage in his intoxicated state. He came across _Grey's Anatomy_ re-runs, a crappy documentary on the Discovery Channel, then the news. This, even in his inebriated state, drew him in. The headline on MSNBC was about attacks that had happened in New York two days ago. He perked up slightly. More attacks in New York? Were they aliens? According to the news anchor, no it wasn't

"Sir, Agent Romanoff is here," Jarvis chimed in, breaking his attention with the television.

"Don't let her —"

The clicking of heels erupted and a silky voice spoke. "Stark, drinking your days away?" she said.

He turned to see Natasha Romanoff, also known as Black Widow, strode into the living room, her arms crossed over her chest. She had her usual small smile on her face as she sat down on the opposite end of the couch from Tony.

Rolling his eyes, he snapped, "What are you doing here, _Agent _Romanoff? As you can see, I'm a little occupied right now."

"Yes, drinking and spending your time cooped up in your garage," she said. "That's a lot to occupy your time. And when you're not locked up in here, you're out partying and sleeping with whatever hooker crosses your path."

"Fury been keeping tabs on me lately?" he snorted.

She shook her head and picked up the remote to mute the news. "No," she said. "Coulson has been. He just reports back to Fury."

"I would have thought he would be keeping tabs on our good friend the Captain, considering he's got such a man crush on our popsicle friend." He laughed at his own comment about Phil Coulson. "Why the hell are you here, though?"

She fixed him with a look. "We need you to come in," she said.

"Why should I?" he asked harshly. "Last time I did, I had to take a nuke into space."

She sat back and dug into her bag, handing over a tablet and motioning for him to open it. "An attack happened in London at Parliament and Big Ben, several severe bombs that killed almost one hundred and fifty civilians."

He shook his head. "Maybe it was just some European terrorists," he said. "Hardly anything that would require S.H.I.E.L.D.'s attention."

"Wrong," she said. "The bombs were a distraction. The British Museum was broken into and a valuable relic was stolen."

He sat forward and set down his scotch tumbler. "So we've got some bombs and a stolen artifact?"

"This artifact is something called the Orb of Isis," she said. "It can be used to magnify powers of telepathy. And one of the people we'd been following as a slight precaution, but she never did anything serious until now, is is responsible. A telepath by the name of Bellaria. We need to figure out what she's planning."

He stared at the tablet he had yet to open and looked at it for a long while. His curiosity had definitely been peaked now. He glanced back up at Romanoff. "Who else are you calling in?"

"Everyone," she said. "Cap, Thor, Banner, Barton, Selvig and Jane Foster and their intern Darcy," she said. "All of us, the whole team."

Tony thought as hard as he could in his drunken state. This could be just what he needed. Pepper was gone, he had nothing to do. Why not jump up for a crazy mission? It may take his mind off the anxiety attacks, too. Or exacerbate them…who knew? But what the hell. He would go for it.

"Count me in," he said. "Have my lab ready for Banner and I to work in when we get there."

"Already done."


	3. A Bomb - The Orb of Isis

**Disclaimer: I own nothing.**

**Here's the new Avengers/Criminal Minds crossover! Thanks to the readers and reviewers :)**

**PS - The small scene between Banner and Stark is referring to the post-credits scene from Ironman 3.**

_Three Days Later, New York City_

"FBI! Stop!" Derek hollered at the fleeing man who was running through the streets of New York. He blazed after one of the unsubs, using all the speed he could with the crowded streets. People looked at him as if he were a maniac, some of them hollering at him for bumping into them as he ran past. "Stop!" he yelled again.

_God damn it! _he cursed internally. _Here I wanted to be home to see my family and be awake for it, but once I catch this guy I'll be dead tired._

Just when he thought things couldn't get any worse, the unsub shot inside the Chyrsler Building. He knocked over several people as he ran in, pushing them down roughly. What could he possibly want to do in there? Derek followed him in chased him through the lobby, attracting the attention of everyone. One man yelled, "What the fuck are you morons doing?" Derek ignored them and hurried after the unsub as he shot down a short hallway that was less lit and less crowded. The unsub pushed open a door at the end of the hallway that led to the stairwell, and Derek could only assume that he was headed for the basement. If there was a bomb in the building, that was where it was most likely where it would be. Now that there were less people, he pulled his gun from his holster and held it up, aiming it as he followed the unsub. He was prepared to use it if he needed to.

As the chase continued, they ended up in the basement. The unsub had disappeared from view and was clearly hiding. Derek looked around in the hallway beneath the flickering fluorescent lights. The sounds of a pipe being kicked came through the hall, and he whirled around in the direction of it.

"This whole city needs to burn," a menacing voice sounded.

He looked around, trying to identify where the voice was coming from. After a moment, he replied, "You don't need to do this, Martin. You don't need to continue to attack the city."

"They need to pay for how they treated us after we returned from the war!"

Finally thinking he found where the voice was, Derek hurried forward and turned the corner. What he found shocked him. All around him and Martin, they were surrounded by explosives, all of them firebombs. In Martin's grasp was the trigger. He was shaking with rage as he glared at Derek. "Put the gun down, Agent," he growled through gritted teeth. "Put it down, or I blow this whole building to bits…you included. Do you have a family, Agent? Because you'll be leaving them if you allow me to push this button."

Derek couldn't help but gulp. The unsub was right; if he allowed Martin to push the button and blow up the Chrysler Building, he'd not only be killing hundreds, he'd be killing them both, too. Penelope and Talia flashed before his eyes, and his heart began to beat faster than a speeding motorcycle. He needed to be careful with how he approached this. "You know I can't do that, Martin," he said calmly. "But if you put the trigger down, no one else will die."

Martin shook his head. "No. No, it doesn't matter. People die every day. My _friends _died over in Vietnam, and no one gave a shit. So why would they give a shit now about people dying now?" He posed his finger over the button on the trigger and set his face in a hard line.

Derek shook his head. "Don't do this, Martin!" he said hastily. "Just put the trigger down!"

"No," he said with a glare. I can't do it. I _won't _do it!"

And then he pressed the button, causing a massive explosion to occur, and a flash of blinding light, followed by a ear-splitting boom that caused Derek to fall into blackness.

XXXXX

_Official S.H.I.E.L.D Helicarrier, Atlantic Ocean_

"Fury, what have you got for us?" Tony said, not bothering with formal introductions as he and Natasha stepped out of the helicopter that brought them to the rested Helicarrier that was currently off the coast, halted in the ocean. As soon as the whole team was there, the ship would take off and rise into the sky. He didn't care if Fury was fixing him with a look with his one eye. He wasn't interested in seeing people and treating them like old friends. He was too set on getting done with whatever this job was so he could return to Malibu and drown himself in alcohol once again.

Fury, who had been waiting for Tony and Natasha outside, raised his brows. "Always a pleasure, Stark," he said sarcastically. He motioned for them to follow him inside. "You're the last ones to arrive. The rest of them are inside."

"What have we got so far?" Natasha asked as they walked through the halls towards the main control deck.

"Not much right now," Fury reported. "We're still attempting to track down the exact whereabouts of the telepath, Bellaria, but so far we've got nothing. That's part of the reason we called you all in. But what we do know is that if Bellaria is able to activate this artifact and combine it with her powers, she'll be able to magnify her powers to affect the globe."

Tony cocked a brow. "How do we know that's what she intends to do?" he asked.

"We know because she left a message for us at the British Museum after stealing the artifact," Fury said. "You'll see it when we get in the briefing area. But this artifact, the Orb of Isis, it'll have detrimental consequences for everyone. However, we have one advantage over her."

"What's that?" Natasha asked.

He halted before they entered the main deck. "There's a piece that she's missing before she can activate it. That's the reason we called you all in. And Doctors Selvig and Foster. We need you all."

They followed Fury into the control room where they found the rest of the Avengers, S.H.I.E.L.D. agents, and scientists who had been called in. Tony looked around at the group: Steve Rogers, known to all as Captain America; Thor, Asgardian God of Thunder; Clint Barton, nicknamed Hawkeye for his incredible skill with a bow; Bruce Banner, whose body had been affected by major gamma radiation that transformed him into the Hulk; Agents Coulson and Hill; physicists Eric Selvig and Jane Foster and their intern, Darcy. All heads turned in his and Natasha's direction.

"Well, looks like the whole team is here," Tony muttered, nodding in greeting to them all. He went up to Banner and slapped him on the shoulder. "Banner," he said in greeting.

Bruce nodded to him. "Hi, Stark," he said.

"You ready to save the world again?" Tony asked.

He snorted. "Yeah, this is my favorite thing to do," he said sarcastically.

Fury went to the head of the table and drew everyone's attention towards him. "Alright, people," he said. "You all know the basic reason as to why you're here: the Orb of Isis and the woman who stole it, the telepath, Bellaria."

"What is this Orb of Isis?" Thor asked. "What powers does it hold?"

Agent Hill spoke up this time. "The Orb holds the ability to magnify a power such as telepathy or telekinesis. And she has it. She left us this video to let us know who was responsible." She used a remote to play the video Bellaria had left behind. When the screen turned on, a beautiful woman with near-white eyes showed up. A vicious smile lit up her face.

"_Hello members of S.H.I.E.L.D. I'm sure you know of who I am…you seem to know who we all are. But just in case, let me introduce myself again. My name is Bellaria, and I have the ability to control the minds of others. If I chose to, I would be able to take your will from you. But alas, I can't get within range to do that. But now that I have this, the Orb of Isis, I will be able to control you. Every…last…one of you. You will see very soon that things will go my way."_

The screen faded to black, and everyone sat in silence for a moment.

Tony was the first to speak. "How can we find it?" he asked. "And her?"

"We were about to explain this," Fury said. "The artifact, while magical, can also be tracked using science. As Thor would put it, magic and science are one and the same." He began to pace around the table where the whole team was gathered. "You'll be able to track it because it gives off a unique radiation signature that our gear should be able to pick. We need you and Banner to look at it. Doctors Selvig and Foster will assist you."

Steve raised a hand and asked, "What about the rest of us?"

Fury nodded to him. "I was getting there, Rogers," he said. "The rest of you are going to look for the piece that Bellaria will need to activate the Orb of Isis, the Key of Osris. She can't use the Orb until she gets the Key. We don't know how long it will be until she finds it, but we need you to get to it first. Coulson and Hill will be helping you search the archives for clues to its location."

Tony had been thinking about the woman they were hunting down. She was extremely unsettling to him, a frightening glint in her pale eyes that was enough to cause chills even in the most sociopathic of people. He had a feeling, just by looking at her, that this woman would require more work to figure out than Loki, who had been easy to understand because his brother was one of the people striving to end his evil reign. But Bellaria…she would require more work.

She would require more careful understanding than any of them could understand. They needed a profile on her.

"How much do we really know about her, about her character?" he asked, training his question towards the S.H.I.E.L.D. agents.

Coulson shook his head. "Not a whole lot," he said. "She's a complicated one. We don't know quite how she might operate."

Banner shook his head. "If we don't have an understanding of who she is, we're gonna have a really hard time figuring out how to stop her," he said. "We need —"

Fury cut him off. "For right now, we need to track down that key," he started, "and you, Stark, and the doctors will work on finding the Orb. We start immediately." He motioned for everyone to begin working on what he'd assigned them. As he did, Hill went to whisper something in his ear. His eyes went wide and he added, "Alright. I need to get to New York. Tell the doctors to wait until I get there. And tell them I have something that might be able to help." He fixed her with a hard look. "You and Coulson hold the fort while I'm away."

Tony and Banner exchanged looks, both still thinking they didn't know enough about Bellaria. As they all began splitting up, Banner turned to Tony and asked, "Did you finally start talking to a real doctor?"

"I figured I could talk with you more," Tony said as they started towards their lab. "You know, get more of the problems off my chest and shit."

"Stark, I told you I'm not that kind of doctor," Banner said in exasperation. "Remember? Not the right temperament?" He shook his head. "You know, you really do need to talk with someone about this? And since Pepper left —"

He roughly cut him off. "We don't talk about that shit," he said gruffly. "That's the one thing that's off limits. Got it?"

Banner held his hands up in surrender. "Okay then," he said. "But don't forget, I'm not that kind of doctor." Turning to Eric Selvig, Jane Foster, and Darcy, he said, "You all ready to get to work?"

Stark rolled his eyes. They just had to find this Orb of Isis and stop the telepath from trying to take over the world. _Should be easy enough, _he thought to himself.

XXXXX

_Quantico, Virginia_

Penelope was sitting at her desk, typing away on the computer when she heard the knock on her door. "Enter, mere mortal!" she called out. She turned around, fully expecting to see another tech or even Agent Anderson standing there. However, she was highly surprised when she saw it was her boss. The look on his face was completely guarded, and his eyes had a hooded glint to them. Rising to her feet, she looked at him oddly, before asking, "Bossman! What are you doing here? Why didn't anyone tell me the team was coming home? Usually Derek calls me before you guys even get on the jet."

"Penelope, you might want to sit down," he said, his voice coming out ragged and choppy.

She laughed nervously. "What? Why are you being so weird?" As she looked at him more closely, her stomach dropped, and a cold feeling of dread started to cast itself over her. He was quiet, and his silence was telling her more than she wanted to know. "Hotch, what is it?" When he looked down at the ground and remained silent, choking on words that were caught in his throat, her voice raised and tears filled her eyes. "Where's Derek? Tell me where he is!"

Hotch looked up at her and swimming in his eyes were tears of grief. "Penelope, Derek…he was blind-sided by the unsub," he said. "We didn't anticipate him having explosives set up, and Derek pursued him directly into the area. He didn't even know they were in there. _None _of us did."

Penelope stood, frozen in the moment. She didn't want to believe it, any of the words Hotch was saying. Unconsciously, tears trickled down her face, and her lower lip trembled. "No," she whispered, shaking her head viciously. "No, he can't be dead! He's _not _dead!" She tried to race towards the door, but Hotch put his hands on her shoulders and stopped her. Almost immediately, her quiet demeanor she had when he first told the news disappeared and gave way to a violent, aggressive one. "No!" she screamed. "He's not gone! He's — he's —"

Her voice choked off, turning into incoherent screams of grief. All Hotch could do was pull her into his arms and hug her, knowing that no amount of comfort would heal this wound.

XXXXX

_Mercy General Hospital, New York City_

"You told none of his team that he was still alive?" Fury asked the doctor as he strode into the hospital's OR level. They stopped in front of the door to an operating room and he looked through the glass on the door. Inside the room, lying on an operating table, was a severely burned man that looked almost unrecognizable.

The doctor shook his head. "No," he said. "We haven't told them anything yet. We didn't think he would live much longer, but he's still holding on. His body was severely burned and —"

Holding up his hand, Fury cut him off. "His physical injuries will all be taken care of by this," he said, holding up a syringe from his large coat's pocket. Inside was an electric blue liquid, and the doctor stared at it with wide eyes. "As long as he's still alive, this will heal him."

"What is it?"

"It's the best chance he has at surviving," Fury said simply. "Inject him with it, and he may live."

The doctor took the syringe and was about to open the door to the OR, but looked back at Fury and asked, "What do we tell his team and his family if he makes it out? We have no idea what this is." He nodded to the syringe in his hand.

Fury grimaced. "Even if he makes it out of this, you tell them he didn't survive," he said. "This man needs to be taken to our facility. If he lives, we take him from here. As far as the everyone knows, Derek Morgan is dead."


	4. An Avenger Now

**Disclaimer: I own nothing.**

**Sorry about the last one. The Morgan family is in for a little turmoil, but for you who know how my writing operates, you****'****ll know it won****'****t stay that way. So here****'****s the new one! Thanks for the reviews :)**

The first thing Derek heard when he came back to consciousness was the sound of buzzing. He couldn't see anything, but he could hear it all. His other senses were extremely heightened. Where was he? He couldn't remember what happened exactly. Everything was fuzzy. Gradually though, he found the ability to open his eyes. Things were slightly blurry while he waited for his vision to adjust. It was a stark white lab room that he was in. He was lying on a table, that much he could tell. Slowly, he began to sit up, rubbing his head. His whole body felt wired, like there was electricity running through his veins and charging his body. As he sat, perched on the edge of the table, he vaguely remembered an explosion, a flash of light and a boom. He remembered the unsub and trying to talk him down. As he looked around, he realized he wasn't in a normal hospital room; it looked more like a laboratory than anything else.

But then the thought went through his head: how was he even breathing right then? A blast such as the one he remembered would have killed him. He should be dead. Jumping to his feet, he looked around wildly. He had to find out what happened. He needed to find Penelope and let her knew that he was alright by some miracle.

Locating the door, he strode towards it and attempted to wrench it open and find someone to tell him where his wife was. But the door was locked.

"What the fuck?" he demanded. He beat against the steel door with his bare fists. He was so focussed on getting out that he didn't even notice he had begun dent the door with nothing but his hands. "Hey! Hey, let me out of here!" This had to be a dream. Why the hell couldn't he make it out of here? "Hey, can anyone hear me?"

Realizing the door wasn't going anywhere, he backed away and started looking around the room for ways to get out. So far though, he wasn't finding anything. The room was fairly empty, save for medical supplies and equipment. On one wall was a huge mirror, and he took the opportunity to look at himself. He didn't look any different. He looked like he normally did. But it was how he was feeling that was making him uncertain. He felt hyper-aware of his surroundings and movements; he felt like he had energy drink getting injected into his body at a rapid pace. His heart was racing uncontrollably, thumping roughly against his ribcage.

But suddenly, the hiss and groan of the door opening sounded from across the room, and he shot around to look at who it was.

In stepped a rough looking older man dressed in all black and an eyepatch covering his left eye. Immediately, he stepped back and picked up a scalpel on the counter. "Who the fuck are you?" he hollered. When the man merely crossed his arms over his chest and cocked his brow, he repeated himself. "Who are you? Tell me where I am! And where's my wife? I want to see her."

"Well, to answer your first question, I'm —"

Derek scowled at the stranger. "That's not the most important question I have," he snapped. "I'd rather know where my wife is."

Fury ignored him and kept going. "I'm Nick Fury, director of the Strategic Homeland Intervention, Enforcement, and Logistics Division," he said.

"Got a shorter name for that mouthful?" Derek snapped in response.

"We call it S.H.I.E.L.D.," Fury said impatiently. "And put down that scalpel before you break it in half."

"I think I'll keep it," Derek said cautiously, not understanding why this one-eyed man was thinking he would break a hard metal scalpel.

Fury shrugged. "Fine then," he said nonchalantly. "Keep it. You won't need it."

"Why should I trust you?"

"Because we saved your life," he responded. "You wouldn't be alive if it weren't for this." He held up a syringe filled with electric blue liquid from his long trench coat's pocket.

Derek's eyes widened, and he stared at the syringe with shock. "What the fuck is that?" he said, his voice sounding hoarse as it came out.

Fury motioned for Derek to follow him. "Come with me," he said. "We've got to explain some things to you." He went to open the door and paused when he looked down at where Derek's fists had left imprints. Looking back over his shoulder at him, he nodded. "Impressive. Very impressive." He glanced back at Derek and moved his body so he could see what his fists had done. Derek was speechless, staring blankly at the door. Fury spoke up again. "Put the scalpel down. Come with me. We can talk. There are several things we need to explain to you."

"Who's we?" Derek said stiffly, putting the scalpel down and walking forward hesitantly.

"We're the 'we' he's talking about," a silky voice said.

Derek's eyes shot up from his hand prints on the door to see an incredibly good-looking woman with auburn hair and a slim, but toned physique. She smiled softly at him as Fury led him out of the room and into a hallway. It was an incredibly well-lit, high tech hall that looked like it belonged in a high security science lab. Where the hell was he?

"And you are?" he asked cautiously.

"Natasha Romanoff," she said smoothly. "Good to meet you, Agent Morgan."

He frowned at them all. "How do you all know my name? This sure as hell isn't a hospital. Where am I?"

"You're several miles up in the sky," Natasha answered him as she and Fury led him down the hall and towards a set of double doors.

"What do you —" He began to say before he was led into a control room with floor to ceiling windows that overlooked the clouds. His mouth dropped. Natasha hadn't lied; they were up in the sky. He strode forward, passing Fury and Natasha and looked out over the control deck at the high tech computer gears and massive number of people. "What is this place?" he asked in wonder. "How is —" But then he halted again as his eyes fell on something else. He'd turned around to see the large round table where he saw two people he'd recognize anywhere. He whirled around to face Fury. "Are those two who I think they are?" he said, pointing at the table where Thor and Captain America were sitting, looking over things with two other agents. He looked back at Natasha and cocked a brow. "And you were there in New York, too! I didn't recognize you at first, but…" His voice trailed off. "Why am I here?"

Fury motioned for him to join him at some of the screens. He used the touch screen to pull up a file of information on him, Derek Morgan. "You're here because we've been keeping an eye on you for the past year or so," he explained. "Seems a bit unusual, but we needed to know if you were viable candidate."

"A viable candidate for what?" Derek asked.

"We wanted to recruit you to be an agent for us, for S.H.I.E.L.D.," Fury stated. "We were planning on offering you a job before this happened with the bombing in the city. You're quite the exceptional agent and profiler." He moved the screens to show footage of him chasing the unsub through the lobby of the Chrysler Building. "However, after this happened with the firebombs, merely asking you to come work for us wasn't going to work."

A man wearing a pair of sunglasses — even though they were inside — came up towards them and nodded to Derek. "This the FBI man you guys have been tracking down?"

"How many people seem to know who the fuck I am?" Derek demanded. "You all know who I am, so do me a favor and tell me who you are."

Taking his sunglasses off, the man nodded to him. "Clint Barton," he said. "People seem to enjoy calling me the Hawk, though."

Derek fixed him with a harder look and studied him carefully. "Are you the one with the bow?" he asked. "From New York?"

"See, people seem to know exactly who our buddies Ironman, Thor, Cap, and Hulk are, but no one seems to know who Natasha and I are," Barton said sarcastically. "Nat and I were there, too though."

Cocking a brow, Derek returned his gaze to Fury. "Okay, so I've met these two," he said. "But I want to know how I'm alive. You said it had to do with that syringe. What is it? How am I here?"

"You're here because of this man right here," Fury said pulling up a new screen, this time with a photo of a man from several decades ago. Another photo popped up next to him, this time one of Captain America. "You're here because of the serum created by Dr. Abraham Erskine, that our labs have been modifying. The original serum was used by Erskine and the army on that man over there." He pointed in the direction of Captain America. "The serum made him a stronger and better soldier. You've been injected with a different version of this same drug."

Derek stared at him incredulously. "You're telling me that you put a drug in me that made me another version of Captain fuckin' America?" he demanded.

Having heard his name being said in a rather unsavory manner, the Cap looked up in their direction and observed them for a moment. "Nice to meet you, Agent," he called. "Welcome to the team. Fury tells me we could use a man like you." He nodded and smiled to him, looking just like the ads Derek had seen about him all over the place: the definition of patriotism and righteousness.

"Yes, that's exactly what I'm telling you," Fury said, interrupting his thoughts on the Cap. "But there are some major differences…namely, this one."

He switched the screen again, moving onto a photo of a man who looked chargrilled in many ways. Derek was horrified looking at it, seeing the charred skiing and characteristics masked by the disfigurement of the body. But when he looked closer at it, he realized that it was him he was staring at. His throat dried up in the same way a desert would when hit directly by the sun. "That…is that me?" he asked with difficulty.

"Yes," he said. "That's you. Two days ago."

Derek glared at him. "How the hell is that me from two days ago?" he said harshly. "There is no way I should look like nothing is wrong with me."

"Well, you didn't die on impact, and because you didn't die, we decided to test the serum to see if it would save your life," Fury said. "This version of Erskine's serum, when injected into a body, gives you healing powers of some sort. We didn't realize how well they would work. Your cells have completely regenerated in merely two days. It's incredible. And like the serum in Steve Rogers over there, you've got super strength. That's why you were able to make those dents in the door."

Derek fixed him with a look. "So, it was always the plan for you to ask me to work for you, inject me with a mystery serum you had no idea would even work, and turn me into Stars and Stripes over there?" He jerked his thumb in the direction of Captain America again. He was still finding all of this too hard to believe. Had the doctors explained all this to Penelope when they'd told her it was the only way to save him? Good lord, what was he supposed to tell Talia or his mother or his sisters?

Vaguely under his breath, Cap muttered, "Does anyone realize this guy sounds just like Stark?" Thor chuckled beside him.

"Who sounds just like me, Rogers?"

Derek knew that voice. He'd heard it a million times on the news. It was Tony Stark. He was now entering the room, coming towards them all, a bag of what looked like freeze-dried blueberries in his hands. "So are all of them here?" he asked sarcastically. "Where's the Hulk?"

"Currently working in the lab," Stark answered for Fury. He observed Derek briefly before popping a blueberry in his mouth. "Who's the shirtless Adonis?"

Derek snorted. "Finally a person who doesn't seem to know who I am."

"Stark, this is Derek Morgan," Fury introduced. "We injected him with a modified version of Rogers' serum."

"Welcome to our ragtag team of the world's greatest superheroes," Stark said dryly. "How exactly is he fitting in to finding Bellaria?"

Before Fury could respond, Derek held up both his hands to stop them all. "Okay, hold on a sec! The whole idea of me having been injected with the same thing as the man in tights over there is still not registering with me exactly, so I'm sure the fireworks for it will be coming later. But right now I want to know where my wife and daughter are. Clearly I'm not in a hospital, so they've got to be around here somewhere. I want to see them." The space between everyone grew quiet, save for Stark, who continued to munch away on his blueberries. Derek noticed the the look in Fury's one eye and suddenly felt anger rise in him. "Where is my family?" he demanded in a quieter voice, one that very clearly had rage boiling beneath it. Switching his gaze from Fury, he looked over to glare at Romanoff and Barton. They merely looked at him evenly.

Stark raised a finger in question. "I take it because none of you are answering him that his family is not here?" he said.

Derek looked back at Fury. "Where are they?" he ground out.

"Your wife and daughter are completely safe," a quieter and more calm man said, coming to join their growing circle. He stopped in front of Derek and stuck out his hand. "I'm Agent Coulson." Derek refused his hand, and he let it fall to his side, apparently not phased or shocked at all by Derek's lack of manners.

Fury nodded. "Coulson's right," he said. "Your wife and daughter are fine. They're not on the Helicarrier with us, but they're fine."

"Where are they, then? I want to see them!" Derek said through gritted teeth, his impatience only getting worse.

"You can't," Romanoff said softly.

The impatience started to leak through, and his voice became even more unsteady as he grew angrier. "What the fuck do you mean by that?"

"What she means, Agent Morgan, is that to everyone — your wife, your daughter, your team — you're dead," Fury said. "No one knows you're still alive. Everyone believes you died in the explosion at the Chrysler Building."

Derek couldn't stop himself from yelling now. "WHAT?" he roared angrily. The whole of the control room got quiet as everyone stared at him. "You're telling me that Penelope, Talia, Hotch…all of them think I'm dead? Why? Why would you not tell them that I'm fine!"

"Your life at the FBI and everything you've ever known is over now," Fury said. "Now that you're part of S.H.I.E.L.D., your life is involved in the things that no one thought possible at first. The attack on New York? That's just one of a thousand other threats out there. You're part of one of the world's biggest secrets now. And because of that, you can't live the life you knew anymore. The plan was never for you to be the test subject for that serum. Our intention was to approach you about a job and have you work the way Coulson or any of our other regular agents would. But if we hadn't used it, you wouldn't be breathing."

Derek's hands clenched into fists, and fresh rage filled his whole body. "But why can't my family know I'm alive?" he demanded.

Stark clapped him on the shoulder. "What our mutual pal Fury is trying to say to you, Morgan," he began, his voice dripping with sarcasm, "is that you're an Avenger now…you don't have a family anymore."

XXXXX

_1 Month Later_

JJ was finishing up washing her hands in the Morgans' upstairs bathroom. The place didn't even feel like a home anymore, though. It seemed like an empty shell, hollow and dull. Since Derek had died, she'd been spending the nights Henry was gone with Penelope and Talia. During the day, Penelope walked around like a ghost. She functioned normally, taking care of her daughter and managing to go in to work, but as soon as Talia went to bed, her tears would overflow and spill everywhere, making her raw and exposed to everyone. Most nights she was over, JJ would find her on the couch, a picture of her and Derek clutched in her arms, sobbing.

It was now nine o'clock in the evening now. She was picking up Henry in the morning, so she was going to spend the night with Penelope and Talia again. As she hit the bottom of the stairs, she went into the living room where Penelope was curled up in the fetal position. No noise was coming from her, but her shoulders were shaking uncontrollably. Occasionally, a sniffle would rise from her.

Tears pricked the back of JJ's eyes. She couldn't stand seeing Penelope like this. She was broken, without any direction. No one would have been able to guess what would happen to Morgan or Garcia if something happened to the other. Their bond went deeper than anyone knew, but this transformation that Penelope had gone through was nothing anyone could have ever thought. Looking at her was terrible for JJ. Her best friend exuded pain. All she wanted to do was wrap her in her arms and tell her it would be okay.

But she knew that it never would be. Not again.

Going around to the other side of the couch, she sat down and rubbed Penelope's shoulder. "Garcie?" she murmured.

Penelope looked up at her and sat straight. Her eyes were cherry red and bloodshot, swollen and puffed up. "Jayje," she said hoarsely. "How am I supposed to get through this? Because right now, I can't figure out what I'm supposed to do."

With trembling lips, JJ wrapped her arms around her best friend and murmured, "You're strong, Penelope. I know you can get through this."

"I thought I was!" Penelope wept. "But I'm not. I can't figure out how to get out of bed in the morning, and I'm worried I'm going to do something that hurts Talia. I never thought I would be so lost without Derek. I'm…I just…"

The tears came in greater force, and all JJ could do was hold her friend tighter. Tears kept burning against the back of her eyes, and she had to force herself to stay composed for her best friend. No one deserved this, especially not Penelope. Seeing how much pain she was in made JJ realize how grateful she was she'd never fallen in love with someone this way. She didn't know if she ever wanted to be this in love with someone. Because the moment that sort of love came around, there was always a chance they could be taken away. As she held her friend, she knew in her heart that even the slight risk of it wasn't worth this pain.


	5. Always - An Evening of Scotch

**Disclaimer: I own nothing.**

**Thank you all so much for the reviews and the follows! It's much appreciated, and this story is hella fun :) We're getting there for the Morgans…hang in there!**

_Two Months After the Death of Derek Morgan_

Penelope entered the principal's office of Talia's school, frantic to find out what had happened to her daughter. She had stupidly forgotten her phone while she had gone into a briefing and had missed the call from the school. And to make matters worse, she hadn't looked at the phone for a full twenty seven minutes after the call had apparently come in. As soon as she listened to the vague message saying she had to come and retrieve Talia immediately, she'd asked Hotch to leave and sped out the door the moment he'd said, "Of course." The whole twenty minute drive to the school, she'd run over worst possible scenarios in her head about what could have happened.

Halting in front of the secretary's desk, her panic barely contained, she croaked out, "I was called about my daughter, Talia. All I got was a message saying I had to pick her up ASAP! Is she okay? Is something wrong?"

The secretary looked at her with pity. That was one of the things she hated most about this period after Derek's death: the looks. People everywhere looked at her like she was broken, even if they had no idea her husband had just died. Sure, she put herself together and attempted to stay standing, but it was all a farce.

Were her wounds that gaping that she appeared depressed t everyone on the surface?

"Yes, Mrs. Morgan," she said softly, as if coaxing a small child to calm down. "I'll let them know you're here right away." She paused, but then added sadly, "Can I get you anything?"

Squeezing her voice past the lump in her throat, Penelope merely shook her head. "No," she said. "Thank you, but I'm fine. But can you tell me what happened to Talia?" There was a hint of desperation in her voice as she asked the last question.

"Mrs. Crowley will answer all your questions as soon as I let her know you're here."

Penelope nodded reluctantly and turned away, unable to take the wounded-puppy look. She began biting her nails anxiously, wondering what the reason she had to pick up her daughter was. Talia may have been independent and high-strung on occasion, but she had never been in trouble. What could possibly be the reason for her being taken to the principal's office.

As she pondered over the matter in her head, the door to Mrs. Crowley's office opened, and the woman stepped out, looking towards Penelope. Her face held the same pitying look that the secretary's had, and Penelope felt the urge to smack it off her face. She was tired of people looking at her like she was a wounded animal. Every single glance like it made the idea of Derek's death still tangible, and if she could help it, she wanted to distance herself from it as much as possible. She needed to be strong for Talia. Constantly being reminded that she had a dead husband would only make her feel weak and crumbly.

"Mrs. Morgan," Mrs. Crowley said in greeting. "Come on in."

Penelope hurried towards her and into the office where Talia was sitting with her back to the door in one of the two chairs facing Mrs. Crowley's desk. Kneeling beside her, motioning to look towards the door and see her mother was Ms. Cassus, Talia's teacher fresh out of graduate school.

"Look who's here, Talia," Ms. Cassus said, pointing towards the door.

Whirling around, Talia saw Penelope standing in the doorway. She jumped up from her chair and ran to throw her arms around her mother's waist. But before she did, Penelope got a look at her face and gasped; her right eye was purple as an eggplant and nearly swollen shut, while her lip had a small cut on it. "Talia?" she said in shock, kneeling down in front of her. "Oh my God, what happened to you?" Talia shook her head, refused to answer, and buried her face in her mother's neck. She wasn't crying, but she was trying to hide. Whenever Talia was upset, she didn't break down into tears; she hid…usually with Derek. Penelope looked up with rage at the principal and demanded, "What happened? Who did this to her?"

Mrs. Crowley motioned to the chairs in front of her desk. "Please, Mrs. Morgan, have a seat," she said calmly. Her face still hadn't lost the pitiful look on it, and it was only increasingly annoying Penelope.

"Tal, we're gonna sit down, okay?" she whispered to her daughter, getting ready to rise to her feet.

Talia, who still hadn't spoken a word, reluctantly let go of her mother's neck and allowed them both to move towards the desk. She still clung to Penelope, so her mother pulled her into her lap, leaving room for Ms. Cassus to sit beside them. Thankfully, the teacher chose not to look at Penelope. Instead, she was merely looking at Talia with concern. "Alright," Penelope began as they Mrs. Crowley was settling herself in her seat. "Now that we're all sitting, would you tell me what happened to my daughter please?"

"Talia, would you like to tell your mother what happened, or do you want us to tell her?" Ms. Cassus asked gently. When Talia stared stony-faced at her the ground, her teacher chose to continue for her. "Mrs. Morgan, Talia got into a fight with a few other children today," she explained.

Penelope's eyes went wide. "What?" she croaked. "A fight that led her to get her eye swollen shut? They're in first grade! Who did she get in a fight with?"

"The other children have already been disciplined and sent home for the day," Mrs. Crowley explained. Her lips pursed. "However, it is reported that Talia instigated the physical violence portion of it."

At the explanation of that, Talia opened her mouth to protest, jumping from Penelope's lap and standing defiantly to face the principal. "I did not! Amber lied!"

"Talia, two other girls backed up Amber's story," Mrs. Crowley said, a chastising tone entering her voice.

"They're her friends! Of course they'll say it was my fault!" Talia yelled. "Plus, she's the one who said the mean stuff to me!"

Penelope, not entirely sure she liked the way Mrs. Crowley was glaring at her daughter, glanced towards Ms. Cassus. She shook her head, as if to say she had already tried telling the principal the same thing and failed. Returning her gaze to Talia, Penelope asked gently, "Honey, what did Amber say to you that got you so mad?"

Talia whirled around with a look of fury that Penelope had only seen on one other person's face in her entire life. The look was so reminiscent of Derek's that had she not been trying so hard to keep herself together, she would have broken into sobs right then. But it was clear that Talia was having the worst time imaginable. She turned to her and mumbled, "She said that her mom said we did something wrong because otherwise God wouldn't have taken away Daddy."

Fighting the tears that threatened to pour out of her eyes, Penelope cupped her daughter's cheek and said, "Talia, you _know_ that's not true. It wasn't anyone's fault but that bad man's."

"She also told me that real girls have daddies."

Penelope bent her head and hurriedly wiped a few tears that had leaked out. Taking a deep breath, she met Talia's eyes again. "Talia…" Looking at Mrs. Crowley, she glared, forcing her tears to evaporate. "I hope something more serious is being done to discipline Amber," she said through gritted teeth. When Mrs. Crowley grew uncomfortable, her hands clenched into fists. "What?"

"Well, as Talia was the one who started the fight, she'll be receiving a suspension for the remainder of the week," she said stiffly. "There are three girls saying she started it, so I have no choice."

"You're kidding me!" she scoffed. "After what —" She stopped abruptly, choosing not to keep talking. It was pointless. The principal was intent on not listening to her or the teacher. She just wanted the problem and the child with the dead father to go away. Swallowing hard, she went on. "Fine. It won't happen again. Just be sure to keep those girls from saying things about my husband to Talia." She rose from her seat without looking at Mrs. Crowley again and held out her hand for her daughter to take. "C'mon Baby. Let's go."

Talia didn't hesitate to follow her and hold on to her hand tightly. Penelope nodded gratefully to Ms. Cassus, who had tried to stand up for Talia, and both of them headed from the room, not looking back at all. It wasn't until they got outside that Penelope looked at her phone and sighed. "Honey, I still have some work to do today, so we're going to go see Uncle Hotch and ask if I can have the rest of the day to be with you," she murmured as they walked across the parking lot towards the SUV that had once belonged to Derek. Penelope was trying desperately to sell it, knowing it would only be too painful to see it all the time. But with Esther in the shop, it was her only means of transportation at the moment.

"No, Mom!" she cried, halting in the middle of the lot. Her eyes had gone wide, and here face was frantic, her whole body looking like it wanted to shoot away from Penelope.

Taken back, Penelope looked at her daughter quizzically. "Baby, what's wrong?" she asked.

"I can't go there! I can't see Daddy's old office!"

A sharp pain shot through Penelope's gut, and all at once tears began to fill her eyes again. Kneeling down to Talia's eye level, she pushed a strand of her daughter's hair from her face. "Talia, we don't have to walk by his office," she assured her, kissing her cheek. "I'll leave you with Aunt JJ, ask Uncle Hotch if we can leave, and we'll go right back out the door."

Tears finally filled Talia's eyes, and a few trickled down her face. "Mom, Amber's right," she wept. "Daddy's not here any more. I'll never get to see him again. She's right…I _don't _have a daddy anymore."

"No," Penelope said fiercely, holding Talia still so she would be forced to look at her straight in the eye. "Baby, Amber is an idiot. Your dad is with you always." She placed her hand over her daughter's heart. "He's here. And he's not going anywhere…_ever_."

With a trembling lower lip, Talia placed her small, lithe hand over Penelope's heart. "And here?" she whispered hoarsely. Some of her tears had slipped into her open mouth as she asked the question.

"Always," she choked out past the lump in her throat, tears falling down her face.

XXXXX

Natasha removed the towel from her damp hair and shook her head from side to side rapidly. She had returned to the Helicarrier merely a half hour ago after being in London. Barton, Morgan, and she had gone looking around the British Museum, interviewing a professor who worked there who was an expert on Ancient Egyptian artifacts, a category that the Orb of Isis and Key of Osiris fell under. They currently had no idea where the Orb was, but if they could find it before Bellaria even had any idea of the fact she needed it, they would be more than a few steps ahead already.

The past two months of searching had been excruciating. More bomb attacks initiated by Bellaria had been occurring in different places, most of them happening because she was attempting to tap into the power of the Orb. And the worst part was she kept slipping through their fingers, her and her second-in-command, Nigel.

In addition to chasing Bellaria, S.H.I.E.L.D. had been forced to try and keep Derek Morgan in line. In the two months he had been there, he had caused more security problems than Stark and Banner combined with his attempts to contact his family or former team. Fury had gotten so furious with him at one point, he'd locked him in a containment cell for a day.

He was making their lives almost as difficult as Loki had.

Once she was dressed in a pair of loose pants and tank top, she made her way out of her quarters to go towards the kitchen for tea. On the way there, she passed by Banner and Stark's lab where the two of them were still trying to pick up a trace of the Orb. Not surprisingly, she saw both of them and Morgan through the windows. Banner had his glasses on and was working on something, while Morgan and Stark sat off to the side, passing a bottle of scotch between each other. It never ceased to amaze her how close of buddies the two of them had become. If anyone needed to find Morgan when he wasn't working towards being a pain in everyone's ass, he could be found with Stark…drinking.

Her lips quirked in amusement, and she decided to join the party. Opening the door, she strode in and nodded to them all. "Hope I'm not breaking up your boy party," she said.

"Well, if it isn't Agent Romanoff!" Morgan hollered drunkenly, raising the bottle to her. "Come to foil my attempts at letting my _wife _know I'm still alive?"

Natasha smirked. It was true; she had been the cause of several foils of his plans to get in contact with his wife. "No," she said. "It's been a long day. And you're too drunk to try and get ahold of her." She tilted her head to the side and added, "They're doing fine, your wife and daughter. You have nothing to worry about."

"Except for the little part where they are emotionally devastated." Stark snorted beside Morgan. "They'd be _wonderful_ if you'd let the man tell his family he's alive," he said sarcastically.

"You know what I think?" Morgan said, passing the bottle over to Stark. "I think our Agent Romanoff needs to lighten up." A harsher look lit up his face, and he glared. "Maybe Agent Romanoff needs a little love in her life? I mean, she, Fury, and Coulson seem intent on keeping me away from the woman I love, but maybe she herself should get a little nookie."

Stark clapped his hands together. "You know, that's not a bad idea!" he crowed, sipping from the scotch bottle. "We should set her up with someone!" He let out a loud belch. "I know several men who would die if they could go on a date with you."

Had Natasha not been a more centered person, she would have blushed. However, she kept her emotions in check, not showing a single sign of being embarrassed at the idea of it. Clint told her that maybe she should find someone to date, but she brushed it off. There was no point when she was devoted to her job. "I'm just fine without someone to date," she said.

Morgan fixed her with an arched brow. "Have you ever actually _been_ in love, Agent Romanoff?" he asked.

"You know, we have the same employer," she said to him. "We may as well drop the formalities."

Rolling his eyes, he repeated himself. "_Romanoff_, then…have you ever been in love? Because if you had, you would know that _I _know that my wife and daughter are not okay. Just like I'm not okay. Family and love means everything. Jobs come and go, but love is forever." He, too, let out a belch. "You don't seem to get that. You and Nick fuckin' Fury."

Stark was silent, but then he slurred, "You, sir, are a scholar."

Natasha leaned against one of the counters, but not before snatching the scotch from Stark and Morgan. She took a long swig of it, hiding the irritation she felt with the alcohol. "You're not a scholar, Morgan," she said. "You're a man who's lost his family." Then she started for the door, taking the bottle with her. She continued walking, ignoring the protests erupting from Morgan and Stark over her taking their scotch. Lifting the bottle to her lips again, she took another sip of it and returned towards her quarters. She had scotch now; she didn't need tea. All she needed was to finish the last half of the liquor and think about how much she _didn't _need a man in her life.

She was the Black Widow, after all. Something told her she would just end up poisoning anyone she ended up with.


	6. Bring In the BAU - Old Friends

**Disclaimer: I own nothing.**

**Here****'****s the next one. Thanks for the reviews so far! We****'****re getting closer for the Morgans :)**

_The Helicarrier __— __Over the Atlantic_

Tony rapped sharply on Derek's door at seven in the morning. They had a briefing in less than twenty minutes as Jane Foster and Eric Selvig thought they might have found something in the middle of the night. Yet despite that little fact, Morgan was nowhere to be found yet. Of course, rarely did anyone find him unless he wanted to be found. The man spent more time intoxicated than Tony himself. Most of the time, he passed out in a corner somewhere. Unless he was needed for a mission, he kept to himself or drank with Tony.

Never in his life had Tony seen a man with more grief in his heart than Derek Morgan. It was frightening, even to him. It constantly remade him think his priorities as well. Love was painful; his ended relationship with Pepper told him that much. But this, this pain his new found comrade was going through? It was too much. It made him think it wasn't worth it to try and find someone else.

Over the past two months since he'd joined S.H.I.E.L.D., Derek had shown himself to be two things: a good drinking buddy, and a man with a wicked punch. The one time Tony had escorted Romanoff, Barton, and Morgan on a mission, he'd witnessed the man beat down three clawed and winged creatures Bellaria had likely been responsible for summoning single-handedly with nothing but his bare fists. It was as if Derek's fists were made from the same iron on Tony's suits.

They sounded like huge thunder claps as they hit their targets.

When Tony received no answer, he rolled his eyes. Derek was likely passed out, hungover after all their scotch from the night before. He wasn't as accustomed to being constantly hungover the way Tony was. So without another thought, he opened the door himself.

Sure enough, Derek was lying face down on his bed. Several beer bottles were scattered around the sparsely furnished room on the floor. The only two things in the room other than rumpled clothing and empty bottles of alcohol was a photograph of a blonde woman and her virtually identical, albeit darker-featured, daughter and a charred looking wedding ring. Derek had only spoken about his wife and daughter when he was raging mad at Fury for not letting him tell them he was alive, and when he was stark-raving drunk.

"_So…__she__'__s pretty much your soulmate?__" __Tony questioned, passing Derek a bottle of beer._

_Derek snorted drunkenly. __"She__'__s more than my soulmate,__" __he stated defiantly. __"She__'__s my God-given solace.__"_

Before leaning down to shake Derek awake, Tony observed the photo. He was so glad he'd not fallen in love with Pepper in the "God-given solace" way Derek described being in love with his Penelope. And the idea of kids was enough to scare Tony shitless.

All in all, Tony didn't envy his new friend.

"Wake up, thunder-knuckles!" he hollered, shoving Derek in the shoulder. "We've got a briefing in —" He glanced down at his Rolex. "—fifteen minutes. Get your ass up."

Derek's face shot up, and his eyes snapped open. They were red and bloodshot, clearly indicating he was hungover. In fact, he still looked slightly wasted. After a moment of disorientation, he glared up at Tony and grumbled, "What the fuck? I only went to sleep four hours ago, you jackass!"

"Briefing," Tony said, jerking his thumb in the direction of the door. "We've got one soon. Time to get up."

Derek glared harshly at him. "Give me five minutes," he growled.

Tony waited outside Derek's room for him to emerge. Shortly after, he emerged, wearing black cargo pants, boots, and a thermal shirt. He had prominent bags underneath his eyes, but he was up and functioning at least. Tony smirked. "Morning," he said.

"Oh, yeah. I'm just one big fuckin' ray of sunshine," Derek muttered as they started down the hallway.

They made their way towards the main deck where they would be having the briefing with the rest of the Avengers. Along the way, they ran into Banner. He was sipping a mug of coffee, and he tipped his head to them when they came towards him. Fixing them with a look, he cocked a brow at Derek in particular. "You look horrible," he stated bluntly. "Scotch still sticking to your brain?"

Derek glared at him. "I'm fine," he said.

Tony snickered. "He's still trying to get used to being hungover constantly," he said. "Tell me though, thunder-knuckles: is nightly drunkenness in your spare time doing it for you?"

Switching his perpetual glare towards Tony this time, Derek snapped, "Fuck off, Stark."

Tony just chuckled. The trio entered the main deck where the rest of their core team was beginning to trickle in. All of them sat down. It took all his willpower to not laugh at the sight of Derek squinting because the light coming in through the floor to ceiling windows at the head of the main deck. Beside him, Tony sat just fine, despite the fact he'd consumed only a few sips less than Derek the evening before. He grinned smugly, catching Derek's attention on purpose so he could see it clearly. All he received was a middle finger.

Fury swept into the room a few seconds afterwards. "Alright everyone," he said. "Doctors Foster and Selvig think they found something that might find Bellaria."

"Are we sure she's even got the Orb?" Cap asked. "I mean, Loki didn't keep the Tesseract with him. He sent it off with other people and didn't have any idea where it went. Maybe Bellaria's doing the same thing?"

Thor shook his head. "Those creatures she's controlling are ones she would need the Orb to summon," he said. "They're not from Earth."

"The Orb of Isis doesn't pull things through dimensions," Natasha pointed out.

"She needs the Key to make the Orb work at a global level, but she can use her own powers on a few people at a time," Fury said slowly.

Agent Hill nodded. "Then that would mean that she could find someone who could call those things here," she deduced. "Do we know what they are, by the way?"

"Well, whatever they are, Morgan here kicked three of their asses singlehandedly," Barton reported, sipping his coffee. "That serum makes him pretty damn tough. So tough they started giving him a name." He paused as if or dramatic effect. "Onyx Thunder."

"Fuck the serum," Morgan growled angrily, earning himself looks of irritation from Fury and Hill both. He ignored their looks and set his elbows on the table in front of him. "So this briefing was called because Selvig and Foster think they found something…what was it?"

Jane spoke up immediately. "Well, we were originally called in to work with you all because there is a unique signature that it gives off. It does give off the radiation signal, however, it flickers in and out, so every time we send you all out looking for it, it's disappeared. It's really unreliable. However, the reason we called you in here is because the signal popped up again."

"How can we be sure that it's still there then if it's unreliable?" Tony asked. He began drumming his fingers on the table, wondering how this meeting was supposed to be of any help if it wasn't going to help them find Bellaria.

Selvig shook his head. "It is unreliable," he confirmed. "But the thing about it is the signal is all the way in China. Shang-hai to be specific."

"Well that's a little far away," Tony remarked sarcastically.

"How the hell did she get all the way over there?" Derek grumbled. "We've had the airports keeping an eye out for all this time. How could she have possibly gotten out of the country?" He shook his head in frustration. "How the hell did she get out of here?" His fist slammed on the table in anger, and the surface cracked slightly. The whole of the people gathered around the table looked at him with varying stares. He scowled and grunted, "My bad."

Tony clapped him on the shoulder. "Calm down, thunder knuckles," he said. Turning back to the group, he added, "Okay, how are we going to find her?"

"What we need to do is think like her," Derek said. "Think how she would do things."

Natasha nodded in agreement. "We need to profile her," she said, fixing Derek with a look of approval.

Tony's spirits heightened. "This is good for you, Morgan," he said. "You get to do a little bit of your speciality." He looked at his friend and leaned back in his chair. "So what is our first move?"

Derek looked deep in thought for a moment, as if he were lost in a completely different world, going over how he would solve their problem of finding the missing Bellaria. He was silent for a long time, staring at the table surface in front of him in contemplation, looking at it as if it held the answers. When he finally spoke, he looked directly at Fury. "There's only one way we're going to catch her and get inside her head," he said cryptically.

It was then that Tony realized something. Derek was hatching a plan, and it was a clever plan. Tony couldn't suppress a grin. He was going to ask —

"Bring us my team," Derek said, rising to his feet. "All of them, including my wife. And we'll need a woman from Interpol, Emily Prentiss."

Fury shook his head. "No," he said.

Derek rose to his full height and thundered, "We need them! You have me on this team, and we need them to help us. We can't do this without them."

Tony raised his hand to speak. "I agree with Derek," he said.

Cap scoffed. "You agree with him because he's your newest drinking buddy," he snapped. "Fury's right. We can't be brining them in. We can figure out how to track her down without them."

"No," Tony said. "We do need them. They're the FBI's elite team of profilers. They can get inside that telepath's head and tell us where she is, how she'll strike, and what she had for breakfast beforehand. I'm not just saying this because we're friends; I'm saying this because he's right. The BAU can help us. And Morgan can see his wife again. It'll make Fury's stupid order that he not be able to see her and their daughter a moot point." He gave him a nod, and Derek looked on at him gratefully.

Fury was silent for a moment. He looked at them with irritation, alternating his gaze between Tony and Derek. Tony merely met his eyes with a look of triumph as if to say, I won. Finally, he spoke. "Coulson, you and I are going to Washington DC," he said. He nodded harshly. "We'll find the BAU and bring them back with us."

Derek spoke up once more. This time his voice held desperation in it. "Fury?" He waited for his boss to face him. In a much softer voice, he asked, "Please, if you can, bring my daughter with you. I want to see her."

"I'll do what I can," he said.

For the first time in a long time, Tony felt his heart warm. His friend was about to be reunited with his family. All the pain Derek had been trying to drink away would be leaving him. It made Tony think that maybe there was happiness in love.

Just not for him.

XXXXX

_FBI Headquarters __— __Quantico, Virginia_

The first thing JJ noticed when she looked up from her desk were the tall, dark-skinned man with the eyepatch and his much mellower looking counterpart that entered the bullpen. She frowned and looked at Reid across from her. He, too, was studying the men striding into the room. She leaned over the desk and whispered, "Who is that?"

He shook his head. "I have no idea," he mouthed.

Before she could ask any more questions, a voice broke out through the bullpen. "BAU team, meet in the round table room immediately," Strauss called out. Reid and JJ looked behind them at Strauss and were interested to see why she had a beaming smile on her face.

"Erin Strauss," the man with the eyepatch said, returning the smile. "How long has it been? Almost twenty years?"

She laughed. "Something like that, Nick Fury," she said, a soft pink blush coming over her face. "Follow me this way. Our briefing room is this way." He went up the ramp, followed by the other man, and she added, "I must say, your call was unexpected. What have you been up to?"

"I'll tell you as soon as you gather your whole team in there," he said. "Also, this is Agent Phil Coulson."

"Nice to meet you, ma'am," Agent Coulson said respectfully as they entered the round table room and disappeared from view.

JJ and Reid both stood as Hotch left his office and motioned for them to follow him. "Who is that guy?" she asked curiously as they walked up the ramp. "And why does he and Strauss seem so friendly?" She laughed once. "And why the hell was she blushing when they were talking?"

"All I can say is he better not lay a finger on her," Rossi said gruffly as he stepped out of his office that had apparently been open while Fury was talking with Strauss. "That's my woman!"

She rolled her eyes as they walked towards the round table room. "I think she'll be safe," she said in an attempt to comfort Rossi. They all went and sat down in the room where Blake already was and Strauss and the man, Fury were laughing together. The only one missing was Penelope so far. She looked out through the windows into the bullpen; there was still no sign of her anywhere.

"Time is of the essence here, so we need to get on the move right away with this briefing," Fury said, addressing the whole group this time. He was also oblivious to Rossi's glare of annoyance.

"Shouldn't we wait for Pen — " Reid began to ask.

"I am so, so sorry I'm late!" Penelope cried in interruption, teetering into the room on her three inch heels. "We got stuck in traffic, and —"

"It's my fault we're late," a small, quiet voice grumbled behind her. Talia was following her mother into the room, and JJ smiled at her goddaughter. The little girl looked up at the entirety of her BAU family and waved sheepishly. She looked at Nick Fury in confusion, tilting her head to the side as she studied him. "I got up late. And I'm here because —"

Penelope gently put her hand over her daughter's mouth and laughed nervously. "It's okay, Tal," she said. JJ noted sadly the lack of sparkle in her best friend's eyes. As she looked dully at the rest of the team, she shook her head and added, "Guys, I'm really sorry I had to bring Talia." She looked at Fury more closely this time. "I didn't know we had a meeting this morning. I just saw you through the window, so I —" She shook her head, cutting off mid-sentence and turned away from them. Kneeling down to Talia's eye level, she moved a strand of her hair from her face and murmured, "Baby, just sit right outside the door for —"

She was cut off by Nick Fury. "She can stay," he said, crossing his arms over his chest. "This meeting won't be very long."

Straightening to her full height, Penelope looked at him cooly and placed her arms protectively around Talia. "We talk about serial killers in this room," she growled defensively. "I don't want her to —"

Fury interrupted her. "We're not here to talk about serial killers," he interrupted sharply.

"I can stay, Mama," Talia said defiantly. "I can handle it." Eyeing Fury carefully, she added, "Who are you? And don't interrupt my mom again." She arched a brow at the much larger man who had raised both brows to him. "I mean it. I'm tough! I got this black eye from —"

"Okay, feisty tiger," Penelope scolded, cutting her daughter off. "Just be quiet while he talks." JJ smiled at her. It was shocking sometimes to witness how much of Derek was in her. She was truly her father's daughter, standing up to people ten times her size.

With a barely suppressed smile of amusement, Fury continued on. "I haven't even told Erin why we're here," he said. "But all I can say is it's highly classified. This isn't your usual serial killer situation; it's much more serious than that."

"How so?" Hotch asked, crossing his arms over his chest.

Coulson shook his head. "We can't discuss it here," he said. "All we can tell you in this room is that you were requested by someone we know. We were told you were the only ones who could help."

"Who?" Blake asked. "Who told you we were the only ones to help?"

"Also cannot be discussed here," the serious agent replied.

Rossi, still glaring at Fury with a burning hatred, grumbled, "Oh? Why not?"

"Classified," Fury said. "But we need you." He turned to Erin. "This woman we're hunting, she's alluded us every step of the way. It's our understanding that you can get inside their head and tell us her next moves. Plus, we'll need someone to look through the records on the international servers." His last statement switched attention to Penelope. "We need you all. Today, as soon as the meeting is over."

JJ looked to Penelope with some concern, and as she suspected, she saw hesitation and distrust. "Well, I can't go," she said immediately. "My daughter has no one to stay with her on such short notice. Her grandmother lives all the way in Chicago and —"

Once again, Fury interrupted her. "You'll be able to bring her along," he said swiftly.

"Didn't I tell you to stop interrupting my mom?" Talia thundered, getting ready to launch towards him angrily. She made it far enough away from Penelope that she had to be restrained by JJ, who had jumped from her chair to catch her. "Let me go, Aunt JJ!" she cried, kicking out. "Let me go so I can kick him in the shins! I can't reach anything higher, but I can get his legs!"

JJ hadn't realized until that moment just how angry Talia had grown in the months since her father had died. It made her incredibly sad. "Hang on there, sweetie," she murmured. She glanced at Penelope, whose eyes had filled with tears that weren't spilling, but clearly brewing on the surface. Heading over to JJ, she put her hands on Talia's shoulders and steered her away. "Guys, I'm so, so sorry!" Looking down at her daughter, she shook her head sternly and said, "Stop, Tal!" She took a deep breath and asked, "Why are you telling me to bring my daughter on a potentially dangerous trip?"

Coulson shook his head. "Where we're headed is extremely safe," he assured her. "We've got people who can watch over her. It solves your problem of having someone to watch her while you're working, and she can be safe at all times."

Penelope looked at Talia uncertainly, and JJ saw the fierce protectiveness flare up in her eyes again. It was somewhat strange to her and —based off their looks — the rest of the team that this Nick Fury and his associate were insisting upon Talia coming with them, but they knew Penelope would do anything to keep her daughter with her. JJ put her hand on Penelope's arm and nodded. "Bring her with."

Her friend met her eyes and then looked up into Fury's one eye. "Okay," she said. "But the second I get the sense something isn't right, I'm getting her out of there."

"Believe me, Mrs. Morgan," Coulson said. "We think you'll be quite okay with how this goes. Talia, too."

Fury nodded. "Will you join us?" he asked, directing his attention to Strauss.

"Who is the 'us' you're talking about?" she asked, her face finally showing something other than friendship towards the man in front of them.

"We're S.H.I.E.L.D.," he said. "You'll know more when you come to the airstrip."

Strauss was silent a moment before responding. JJ watched her carefully, wondering what was going on in the other woman's head. She took a moment to look at her fellow team members: glaring Rossi, curious Hotch, interested Reid and Blake, and anxious Penelope, holding her daughter like she was a life raft instead of the other way around. She herself was not looking forward to a new case that they knew absolutely nothing about. It just meant she'd not be able to see Henry again that night as she had planned.

Goddammit! she thought to herself.

"For old time's sake?" Fury said, floating the offer more prominently.

"Alright," Strauss relented. "We'll be there. This had better be going somewhere though, Fury. You better have an unsub we can profile for you."

"Trust me," he said. "You'll have someone to profile." He glanced at his watch. "Be at the airfield in thirty minutes, and we'll get to where we need to go." He nodded to Coulson and the two of them swept from the room. "We'll see you all in thirty."

JJ was watching them leave as Rossi leaned over and muttered to her, "Do you think he ever gets freaky with that eye socket?"

Just before he left the round table room, Fury leaned his head back in, fixed Rossi with a smug look, and said, "Why don't you ask our mutual friend, Erin?" He laughed at Rossi's irritated face and added, "We'll see you all in half an hour." And then they were gone, leaving JJ wondering what would happen with this mystery case that they had no information on how to solve yet and the unsub they had no behaviors on which to base a profile.

This was shaping up to be the strangest case they'd ever received.


	7. The Helicarrier

**Disclaimer: I own nothing.**

**To all of you who are reading this story, you are very kind :) Thank you so much for the reviews everyone, and please enjoy this one…it's exclusively Penelope's POV.**

"Mama, what _is _this thing?" Talia asked Penelope in amazement as they and the rest of the BAU team were sitting down on the high-tech jet that Nick Fury and Agent Coulson said was taking them to their final destination.

Penelope met her daughter's eyes as she was finishing buckling her in. "You know, I have no idea," she said. She kissed Talia's forehead. "But they said you could come with us, so I brought you with us."

"Ms. Strauss says she's friends with that man with one eye," Talia —the ever observant daughter of her profiler father — observed, lowering her voice to a whisper. "How does she know him?"

Glancing over the broad space of the jet towards where Nick Fury and Strauss were sitting and talking like old buddies, Penelope arched a brow. How the hell did Erin Strauss know someone like Fury? He looked like he belonged in a sci-fi movie. But then again, they were on the jet where they supposedly would hear what the hell they were doing. Or at least they were about to get an idea of what the hell they were doing.

The back of the jet started to shut. "How long is this trip supposed to take?" Hotch asked as the jet made noises of coming to life.

"I'd rather know _where _we're going," Blake said.

Fury grinned one last time at Strauss —earning himself a vicious glare from Rossi— and turned his attention to the whole team. "To answer your questions, we are going to an undisclosed location just outside London. This will get us there much quicker, though. Say, two or three hours."

"What does S.H.I.E.L.D. mean?" Penelope asked softly. "I did a little digging on my servers before I left, but I couldn't find anything about it. It's like you guys are ghosts or something."

Coulson nodded to her. "Yes, there's a reason for that," he said. "President Kensington-Parker okayed it because of the…unusual nature of this initiative. S.H.I.E.L.D., Mrs. Morgan, stands for the Strategic Homeland Intervention, Enforcement, and Logistics Division. And we work with the people you've only ever heard of or seen on the TV." The jet began to take off, speeding down the runway. Penelope looked over at Talia — the little girl had never been on a plane before — to make sure she was doing okay. Her daughter merely looked excited.

"Like who?" JJ asked hardly.

"A year ago you may have heard about a certain incident that occurred in New York City," Fury said. "An incident involving people and things you never would have thought existed before then." He paused to watch their faces carefully. They all looked confused for a moment, so he clarified. "You all know who I'm talking about."

"You're kidding right?" Penelope exclaimed. "The Avengers? The freakin' _Avengers_?"

Fury nodded in her direction. "That is correct." He folded his hands in front of him, and looked more closely at Penelope. "And yes, we know you tried to get on our server. You're rather exceptional at your job."

Penelope observed him in confusion. Nick Fury seemed oddly interested in her and Talia. The fact he'd told her to bring her daughter with her made her even more surprised. What could he possibly have wanted with Talia? The answer about it begin better for convenience and not having to find a babysitter? It was complete bullshit. She saw right through it. There was something else going on here, and she wanted to find out what it was. She was keeping an eye on Nick Fury for the remainder of this trip.

"We're taking you to our headquarters," he continued on. "We've got a lot of work to do."

Talia turned to her mother, and excitement began to bubble out of her mouth. "Mama, are we really meeting the Avengers?" she gasped.

Blinking several times, Penelope felt her brain begin to move at a million miles an hour. What was going _on_? Why was the most famous superhero team in need of the BAU's help? Weren't superheroes supposed to be able to track their super villains easily? She could tell by the looks on the faces of her team that they were equally puzzled.

Even Strauss, who very clearly had a romantic history with Fury, was shocked. "Nick, what is going on that you needed us?" she asked. "We're a group that hunts serial killers, not Asgardian legends and aliens." She frowned before adding, "And how on Earth did you get involved with this?"

"The woman we're hunting has killed over two hundred people in the past two months," he explained," he explained. "She's just as bad — probably even worse — that the serial killers you hunt. She's the one who's responsible for all the attacks that have taken place in London."

Penelope found herself feeling the gaping hole the loss of Derek had left within her begin to gush with more pain. The mention of the London attacks being at the same time of as her husband's death just reminded her of what she and Talia had lost. She looked down at her left hand where her wedding ring still sat. Her finger traced the silver band, feeling the grooves of the inscription _God-Given Solace _Derek had specifically requested be put on it. She was forced to fight the tears that constantly threatened to break out of their levees.

"What can you tell us about this woman?" Reid asked. "And if you know who she is, why do you need us?"

"Her name is Bellaria, and she's a telepath," Coulson explained. "A rather malicious one at that. And the reason we need you is because she keeps alluding us. She pops up one minute, but then is gone. We should really wait until we get back to headquarters to tell you much more. We have files on her, waiting to be looked over by you."

JJ folded her arms over her chest. "Do you want to tell us how you decided that you needed us in particular?" she asked. "I mean, the BAU isn't exactly something huge that you would —"

Fury cut her off. "You were called in by someone…who knows about your work and thinks you're our best chance," he said, saying his words with a careful expression There was something guarded in is gaze that once again unsettled Penelope. She scrutinized him carefully. She was sure there was something going on now. But before she could do anything, he had turned to Reid. "Dr. Reid, I'm sure you're familiar with Doctors Jane Foster, and Eric Selvig."

Reid immediately brightened. "Familiar with?" he exclaimed, excitement lighting up his face. "I've read all their works that have ever been published! Dr. Selvig's work is unparalleled and…"

Penelope quit listening and turned to JJ. "What the hell is going on, Jayje?" she whispered so that hopefully no one else could hear her.

"I have no idea," JJ replied. "But it looks like I'm about to meet Henry's two favorite people in the world. The boy is crazy about Thor and that jackass, Tony Stark." There was a scowl covering her face, and her forehead scrunched in irritation.

Arching a brow at her best friend, Penelope asked, "Bitter much?"

"He's a jackass," she said simply. "Have you _seen _the way he is on the television? And not to mention the shit you hear about him being a player." She huffed. "Ugh. He's just a giant…douche."

Rossi took this as his time to interject. "No, I'll tell you who's a giant _douche_, as you so charmingly put it," he snapped in a hushed voice. "That one-eyed bastard is trying to take my woman from me!"

Penelope rolled her eyes, but stole a glance at Strauss and Fury, who had resumed their chatter. She knew Strauss would never cheat on Rossi and that his fears were irrational, but she could see why he might feel slightly threatened by him. He may have had only one eye, but he was an extremely handsome man. And he and Strauss seemed to get along just fine…better than fine. Incredible. It made her wonder what the history was between them.

"Mama, how much longer 'til we get there?" she asked impatiently.

Glancing out the window at the passing sky, Penelope leaned over to kiss her daughter's forehead again. "Still a long while, Baby Doll," she said. "We'll be there soon."

"Good," Talia said, crossing her arms over her chest. "I hate this flying machine."

XXXXX

"_That_ —" Penelope blurted, " — is your _headquarters_?"

"Yes, that's the Helicarrier," Fury said. "Our command center."

As they looked out the front window of the jet, the BAU team looked in shock at the structure they were approaching. It was a giant, ship…thirty thousand miles in the sky. Talia in particular began to perk up. She sat forward and tried to jump forward to run to the window before Rossi caught hold of her and stopped her. "Hold on there, _bella_," he said. "Stay put."

"But Uncle Dave, look at that thing!" she said, pointing. "It's huge!"

The jet began to slow down so it could land on the runway of the deck of the airship. "What is that?" JJ asked.

"As I said, it's called the Helicarrier," Fury answered. "It's our mobile command center. We'll be working here primarily. We've got an agent who will take care of your daughter, Mrs. Morgan, while you get to work with our analysts. She'll be completely safe, as we told you before."

Penelope nodded. "Okay," she said. "But what are you going to need me for? I mean, I'm not a profiler. What can I do on a computer that will help you find her?"

"We'll need her history," he said. "We also need to find out how she got out of the United Kingdom. Check financials of companies that might have boats or work with international shipping. And obviously look into airlines. She's a telepath, so she would be able to get into someone's head and make them overlook the warning we sent to all airlines with her picture."

"Should be easy enough," she said. "Let me look at the files you have when we get in there, and I'll see what I can do."

The jet landed on the deck and slid into its respective dock. Fury rose from his seat to get oxygen masks for them. "You'll need these for the few second walk to the door," he said, passing them out.

As they were putting their masks on, JJ moved next to Penelope as she was helping secure Talia's mask and whispered, "Can you believe this?"

Penelope looked up from adjusting the strap on Talia's head and shook her head. "I don't know what to believe any more," she answered, her voice extremely soft. "I just keep thinking over and over right now what Derek would think about all this, ya know? This is something he would have thought was awesome, helping 'Earth's mightiest heroes' and all." She sighed wistfully, that dull ache that would turn sharp at any second settling in her chest like an unwelcome houseguest. JJ squeezed her shoulder in an attempt to comfort her

"This way please," Agent Coulson said, motioning for them to follow down the ramp and off the jet.

As they were walking, Penelope looked down at her daughter and said, "Take my hand, Tal."

Talia wordlessly took her mother's hand as they walked across the asphalt of the Helicarrier. The air was windy, but the sun was shining as they were above the clouds. Fury had been right when he told them the walk would be a few seconds. They entered in through an airtight door before he told them to take off their masks. The airlock they entered through and went into a hallway that was brightly lit by fluorescent lighting. A few agents in tight navy blue suits were walking through the hall. On the wall directly in front of them was a giant symbol of an eagle in a circle.

"This is an impressive facility," Hotch said, looking down both halls. He nodded in approval.

"Thank you, Agent Hotchner," Fury said, leading them all to to stop in front of the eagle symbol.

Strauss nodded. "I'll have have to agree with you, Aaron," she said. Looking over at Fury, she smiled and added, "How well do you get paid to work for this aspect of the government, Nick? It's got to be a lot." She winked at him, making Rossi's glare even fiercer. He mumbled something under his breath that was incoherent. All Strauss did was jab him in the side with her elbow.

It took all Penelope had not to smirk at him. But before she could say something to try and comfort him, an agent came striding towards their group, a serious look on her extremely pretty face. It was almost as if she was angry about something. "Sir," she said, approaching Fury. "We've got a problem. We're having trouble keeping…" Her voice trailed off as she looked over at the BAU. Her eyes fell specifically on Penelope and Talia, and it was clear she was trying to choose the right words before forming them. "…_Onyx _under wraps."

Grabbing Penelope's sweater, Talia tugged on it and asked, "Mama, who's Onyx?"

"When are we not?" Fury grumbled, rolling his one eye.

Reid frowned. "There's something going on here that you don't know how to tell us," he said, crossing his arms angrily over his chest. "What is it?"

They all noted the uncomfortable looks that crossed the faces of Fury and the female agent who had just shown up. Penelope felt the need to shield her daughter from whatever these people were up to. She closed in on the exchanged look between the Director and the agent. Something more was going on. Now she was certain.

Before any of them could question them, a loud holler could be heard echoing through the halls. No one could tell what the yeller was saying, but it was frightening nonetheless. She whirled to look at Fury and a furious glare lit up her face. "I thought you told me this would be safe!"

"It _is _safe here, Mrs. Morgan," Coulson assured her once again.

Fury shifted uncomfortably and rubbed his forehead momentarily. "When we told you that the person who recommended you was sure you were our best chance, we didn't tell you all of it," he began slowly. "This person requested that you all and Emily Prentiss of Interpol be brought in to help with because we need to profile Bellaria." He focussed his one eye on Penelope.

"Emily is coming?" Reid said excitedly. "When?"

"Who recommended us?" Hotch asked hardly, ignoring all else.

Turning to the female agent, Fury nodded. "Agent Hill, you can bring him in," he said. Hill nodded and went back through the door she had entered from. Fury returned his gaze to the BAU, all of them staring at him in shock.

Penelope could almost feel her heart rate rising. Tingles broke out all over her skin. Why did this seem so familiar? The yelling, the mysterious person who'd recommended them and Emily, the _him_ Fury had just ordered brought in. Was this — no, it wasn't possible! "Who is it that told you to bring us in?" she asked in a hoarse whisper. When Fury didn't answer her, she passed Talia to JJ and went forward towards him, glaring up at him. Coulson tried to put distance between them, but Fury merely shook his head. He didn't seem phased by what was happening currently; in fact, he seemed like he had prepared for it. Stabbing her finger against his chest, she raised her voice. "_Who_ told you to call us?" she said fiercely.

Before he could answer her question, the doors reopened and all heads whirled in the direction of the sliding noise. Thundering into the room ahead of Agent Hill was someone none of them expected to see. Tears filled Penelope's eyes, and she covered her mouth with her hand to keep the gasp from bubbling out of her throat. The rest of the team's mouthes dropped. His face was set in a fierce expression, one that told them he had been the source of the yelling. His face, which had lines from weariness that had been there for what must have been months, was desperate for a glimpse of them.

No one spoke. The tension stayed in the air, almost as stifling as too humid air. It began to weigh down on Penelope until gravity pulled her tears from her eyes.

Just when it seemed the silence was going to continue, Talia broke it. "Daddy?" she said in a choked voice.


	8. Reunion - First Meeting

**Disclaimer: I own nothing.**

**THE HAPPY CHAPTER! ENJOY :) In this chapter, we have the first encounter of what CeeCee333 and I affectionately call Jironman. It's a short introduction, but an introduction nonetheless. And thank you for the reviews as well!**

**POVs in this chapter include: Derek and JJ (I'll be starting adding whose POV before each section)**

_**Derek**_

Derek wasn't the type of man who cried usually, but at this moment he couldn't stop the tears from pricking at the back of his eyes. The sight of his team —his _family_ — right in front of him was enough to bring him to his knees. Even more gut-wrenching about the moment were the looks on Penelope and Talia's faces. Tears had begun to fall from Penelope's eyes in rivers, and Talia was staring at him in utter shock. He noticed that she had a black eye and instantly became concerned. But it didn't last as long as it should have; he was too thrilled to see them.

After the initial shock had set in, Talia's small voice squeaked, "_Daddy_?"

His gaze shot from his wife to look directly at his daughter. Unlike Penelope, there were no tears in her eyes. There was just undeniable joy at seeing her father. Within two seconds, she had ripped herself from JJ's grasp and raced towards him, jumping into his arms the moment he opened them. He held her tightly to him until she started to squirm. "Daddy," she said in a choked voice, "you're hugging me to tight."

Instantly, he released her. He'd forgotten that the serum that had saved his life had also made him stronger. Stronger in a way that he wouldn't be able to control it. He had to be more careful now. Setting Talia back on her feet, he knelt down in front of her and looked at her eye more closely. "Baby Doll, what happened to your eye?"

Talia grinned brightly and shook her head. "Oh, who cares!" she cried happily, throwing her arms around his neck again. "Daddy, how are you alive? Mama said that you were hurt by the bad men in New York. But you're right here!"

He kissed her forehead. "I'm right here," he said, moving hair from her face. "I'm not going anywhere…ever again." He looked up at Penelope who was still standing stock-still. Tears were running down her cheeks, and she looked completely confused, grief-stricken. Her eyes were glued to his. Turning back to Talia, he rubbed her back and said, "Honey, I'm gonna go see your mama real quick. Okay?"

"Can I stay with you?" she asked desperately, clinging to him. Her eyes were wide as she looked at him.

He nodded and kissed the top of her head once more. "Of course," he said, rising to his full height. Looking across the vast silence of people towards his wife, he walked towards her cautiously, a tender expression on his face as he approached his distraught wife. When he reached her, Fury had wisely backed off and given them space. Penelope had gulped down tears and was staring at him with swollen eyes. "Penelope?" he said in a choked voice, a few of his own tears finally slipping out of his eyes.

"Is — are you — why didn't…" She couldn't get the words to come out of her mouth without stuttering.

Holding out his hands, he tried to take her gently, but she threw her arms around him in a death grasp, holding him almost as tightly as he was holding her. Her sobs were muffled against his broad chest, broader now that he had the Erskine serum running through his veins. He buried his face in her neck, inhaling the familiar scent of her that only alcohol and his dreams had brought him for the past two months. He kept his arms around her tightly, Talia nudging her way in to be in the embrace with them. They stayed that way for a few moments, no noise except for footfalls of people coming and going.

When Penelope pulled back to look him in the eyes, she touched his cheeks, pulling at his skin as if she couldn't believe he was right there in front of her. "You're alive," she gasped breathlessly.

He nodded and kissed her palm. "I'm alive," he said.

She shook her head in disbelief. "We - we saw a - a body! We saw…" Her voice trailed off as she stared at him in shock.

"You saw what we wanted you to see," Fury said, breaking up the moment.

With a shift in her expression, Penelope whirled around to face the unmoving Nick Fury. His arms were still crossed stoically over his chest, and his one eye was set in it's usual expression. Derek was extremely excited to see this. Penelope would rip Fury to shreds.

"_You _did this?" she screeched. "I thought my husband was dead all this time because of _you_? You kept him away from his daughter and I for — for _what_?" Her face was full of rage as she strode forward and slapped him across the cheek. "How dare you? Where did you get the - the _right_ to do something like that?"

"I'd like to know the same thing," Hotch said hardly. "I don't care how secret of a government agency this is, but where do you get the right to tell everyone this man is dead?"

Strauss gave her former lover just as frigid of a glare. "And where do you get off taking one of my agents, Nick?"

Agent Hill arched a brow at the group of now bickering BAU agents, all of them with anger they wanted to spew at Fury. She raised her voice up so everyone might hear her. "Shouldn't we forget about where to place blame over the fact that Agent Morgan was proclaimed dead, and start getting to work on finding the telepath threatening to enslave the minds of the human race?" she said impatiently.

Blake turned to glare at her. "I think Penelope can get some answers first," she said hardly, her usual cool faltering some. "It shouldn't take too long. You and Agent Coulson can take us to get to work, while Penelope and Talia get to hear why Derek was taken from them. They can tell us later."

"That sounds fine," Fury said. "Morgan, you and your wife and daughter can come with me. The rest of you, go and get briefed with Agents Coulson and Hill. They'll introduce you to everyone else. And Emily Prentiss will be here within the hour, so she'll join you as soon as she gets here." He motioned for the Morgans to follow him.

Derek finally looked away from Penelope and Talia and to his team. They were all staring at him with shock. He didn't blame them: he was bulkier than he had been before and, more to the point, he was alive when they thought he'd been dead. He smiled to them and waved as he and his family followed Fury down the hall towards Fury's office. Talia was attempting to cling to his legs still, so Derek leaned down and lifted her into his arms. Now that the initial joy of seeing her again had dulled down, he took one look at her eye and frowned.

"Tal, what happened to your eye?" he asked with concern.

She looked away sheepishly. "I got into a fight at school," she mumbled. He looked over at Penelope with utter shock and she shook her head, signaling that they would talk about it later.

Fury punched a code into his key pad and held the door open for them. As soon as they entered his office, Derek set Talia down on her feet, but she stayed glued to his side, keeping her arms tightly around his waist. He looked over at Penelope and slid his arm around her waist, pulling her close. "I love you," he whispered in her ear. "I wanted to tell you I was still alive. I wanted to go back to you both, but —"

Penelope touched his cheek gently, cutting him off. "I know," she sniffled, wiping her eyes again. And though her expression while looking at him had been tender, the one that she had on her face when she turned to look at Fury was drastically different; it was one full of rage. "_You_!" she hissed dangerously, making even Derek afraid of her for a moment. "I wanna know why you thought it was okay to keep my husband thirty thousand feet up in the _sky_, and wouldn't let him tell his wife and daughter that he was _alive_?" She moved both hands to cover Talia's ears. "What the _fuck _is wrong with you?" she whisper-shouted.

"Mama, I know you just said the word 'fuck,'" Talia stated simply even though Penelope's hands were still covering her ears.

Derek looked down at her and with a stern — even though he was trying to cover his amusement — expression. "Young lady, you're not using that word. _Ever__._"

Talia merely grinned cheekily up at her father.

"We had to do whatever was necessary to keep this organization off the radar," he said. "And we didn't know if Erskine's serum was going to work on him. It could have killed him anyway." Seeing Penelope's confused face, he went on with his explanation. "For the past year we've been following your husband's movements, hoping to offer him a job so he could become an agent in the same way Hill and Coulson are. However, when we heard he had been blown up and was barely alive, we decided that his best option would be injecting him with a modified version of the same serum that is in Steve Rogers."

"Who is —"

"Captain America," Fury said. "That's why his body is more bulky. He's gained quite a bit of muscle mass from the serum. He's gotten a lot of extra strength."

Derek snorted. "Tony Stark has started calling me 'thunder knuckles'."

"What the hell are you saying?" Penelope said.

Fury smirked. "I'm saying that your husband is an Avenger now."

Penelope was wide-eyed and the office fell silent. Then, breaking the silence, Talia grinned and exclaimed, "Awesome!"

XXXXX

_**JJ**_

Agents Hill and Coulson led the BAU into an enormous room with floor to ceiling windows that gave a full view of the sun and clouds. It was also filled with people working at extremely high tech computers that made Penelope's lair look like an elementary school playground. They hardly noticed it though; they were all buzzing about the apparent return of Derek.

"God, I can't _believe _he's alive!" Rossi exclaimed, completely ignoring the setting around them. "If anything will bring Penelope out of this funk, it's for sure this."

JJ blew out a sigh. "And Talia. She's been having so much trouble."

"Alright," Hill said, interrupting their conversation. JJ got the instant feeling that Hill was very job-oriented. She likely had no family and devoted her life to working for S.H.I.E.L.D. At least that's what JJ predicted a profile of her would say. "This is where you'll likely be doing most of your work. At least all of you but Dr. Reid. Considering your extensive academic credentials, we were planning on sending you to work with Doctors Banner, Foster, and Selvig. Does that suit you?"

Reid's eyes went as wide as they had when Derek had reappeared. "That's only the greatest thing I can imagine!" He looked like a happy child hyped up on candy after Halloween.

"Well, let's introduce you all to your new colleagues," she said, leading them over to a large round table two times the size of the one in the BAU's conference room. And sitting around the table were three of the Avengers: Thor, Captain America, and the Hulk without his green skin. In addition to them were three other people, two of them Jane Foster and Eric Selvig; the third, they had no idea. They halted at the table. The group at it looked up at them curiously. The BAU just stared at them in semi-shock; meeting the Avengers was a big shock.

"These are Onyx's warrior companions from his past?" Thor said, his thick accent making JJ smile with amusement. It sounded so _sexy_…maybe he could be a rebound guy. Her shoulders sagged in disappointment when the Asgardian looked down at Jane Foster with complete adoration in his gaze. Okay, he was taken.

There went that idea.

Hotch nodded. "Uh, yeah," he said. "We're the warrior companions."

The demi-god nodded respectfully. "It is an honor to meet you. Onyx has spoken very highly of you."

Blake frowned and arched a brow. "Er, why is everyone calling Morgan 'Onyx'?" she asked.

"That's his code name, Onyx Thunder" another voice said. "Rather catchy, I think." A man wearing sunglasses entered the room through sliding automatic doors. He crossed his arms over his chest and nodded to them. "Clint Barton. You can call me Hawkeye if you want."

The younger woman who was standing by Jane Foster went forward…straight towards Rossi, a devilishly coy smile on her face. She stuck her hand out. "And I'm Darcy," she said. "But you can give me a nickname. Jane calls me Intern. Only when she's annoyed with me, but still."

Rossi shot a wicked grin in Strauss' direction and shook Darcy's hand. "Nice to meet you, _bella_," he said, winking at her. Apparently he was considering this as payback for the flirting with Fury she'd been doing all morning. He received a frosty look in return.

"Dr. Reid, this is , Dr. Foster, and Dr. Banner," Coulson said, gesturing towards the physicists. "You'll all be working together to find the signal. We'll get you if your team needs you to help with the profile."

Selvig went to shake Reid's hand. "Good to have you on board," he said. "Follow us. We'll get you caught up." Reid giddily followed after them as they exited, babbling on about how he'd studied their works and publications.

When the scientists disappeared through the sliding door again, Hotch crossed his arms over his chest in his usual thinking stance. "What do you have so far on Bellaria? Anything we can look at?"

Hill nodded and went to a control pad. "She sent us a video," she said. "Let me pull it up."

The video appeared as a hologram-type image in the center of the round table and the shockingly gorgeous woman with very pale eyes began to speak. Her voice was ice cold, her gaze malicious. There was obviously something dark dwelling in her. That much was clear. The team continued to watch, observing and looking for anything they could to tell them something.

As Bellaria spoke her plot to them, a voice sounded quietly in JJ's ear, startling her.

"Now what is someone like you doing on this hellhole of a ship?"

She whirled around, and her eyes grew wide. Standing next to her, leaning close so he could whisper in her ear, was none other than Tony Stark. His hands were folded behind his back, his handsome face set in a laid back, relaxed expression. There was an amused twinkle in his eye. JJ took a moment to study him. The infamous genius, billionaire, playboy, philanthropist was looking casual in his jeans and Black Sabbath thermal shirt. Beneath the fabric, she could make out the glowing blue of the instrument that apparently powered his Ironman suit. He wore a cocky expression, and there was the hint of a smirk on his lips.

And the way he was looking at her was pissing her off. He was looking at her like she was nothing more than a loose Vegas hooker.

Glaring at him, she snapped quietly, "I'm working."

His brows raised as if he was truly interested; she could tell that he wasn't, though. He was still looking at her like she was a piece of red velvet cake. "Oh!" he said as if realizing something. "You're part of thunder knuckles' team, aren't you? You're one of the profilers."

She rolled her eyes. "Wow, that genius brain of yours the world is so keenly reminded of — most of the time by you yourself — really _does _work!" she grumbled.

He laughed. "There's a lot more of me that works extremely well," he said, his voice growing huskier.

JJ glared at him more fiercely. "If we weren't in the middle of a briefing, I would slap you," she hissed.

"Something tells me I wouldn't mind getting slapped by you," he chuckled.

This time when he spoke, she could feel her breath on her ear. Frustrated, she jabbed her elbow backwards and into his gut. That made him back up fairly immediately. But it didn't shut his attitude down. In fact, it only seemed to encourage him. "This should be interesting," he laughed, backing away finally.

JJ was ready to respond with venom, but the video of Bellaria had stopped playing and they were getting ready to start brainstorming. Shaking her head, she pushed the pig of a man that Ironman was to the back of her mind.

It was time to profile a telepath. This would certainly be one to tell Henry all about.

**The next one will have more case work in it, and more JJ/Ironman. Also, the first meeting of Reid and Black Widow. A lot in store!**


	9. Meeting Widow - Preliminary Profile

**Disclaimer: I own nothing.**

**Here's the new one! The BAU/SHIELD pairings will be featured in this one. Reviews are appreciated, and thank you to those of you who have reviewed :)**

_**Reid**_

"What exactly is this object we're looking for?" Reid asked. "You know, seeing as I missed everything Agents Coulson and Hill were telling my team."

Jane Foster spoke first. "This object is a relic from thousands of years ago," she explained. "It's called the Orb of Isis. Apparently it would be able to magnify Bellaria's powers and enable her to use them on a global level. Since she has a hold of it, she'll have the potential to turn people into her own personal slaves."

"She can't do it without the Key of Osiris, though," Eric Selvig reminded her. "Without it, the Orb is nothing but a trinket that just so happens to have the name of a very valuable period of history. She can only use her normal power at this point." He motioned for Reid to follow them through a set of sliding doors that led to a wider hallway.

Reid nodded, going through his head, trying to figure out if he'd heard of of these objects. "How much do you know about these objects' histories? Were they said to be cursed? Some Ancient Egyptian artifacts have had associations with tragic curses. Take the King Tut discovery."

"We don't really know much about the King Tut incidents, however these objects probably aren't cursed," Selvig continued. "As far as we can tell, these items were of great value to the Egyptians. We found references to them holding telepaths in high esteem, in some of the same ways as cats. It's really very interesting."

Reid frowned. "So where does it get its power from?"

Jane shook her head. "In the two months we've been working on this case, we haven't been able to find a source for where it draws its power," she said. "But what we do know is it gives off a signal — a very small, unreliable one —of radiation that helps us track its whereabouts if we can find it. The problem is it disappears quickly because it's so faint. It's led to some problems with us catching Bellaria. Who has apparently made her way out of the United Kingdom because the signal is in China now. That's part of why we need Morgan's wife here, to see if she can find any flights that the telepath might have been able to weasel her way onto."

"Well, Garcia is the best at what she…." As they were walking towards the lab, an extremely beautiful auburn-haired woman came out of one of the other sliding doors lining the hall. Reid's voice had trailed off unexpectedly. He was entranced by her. She had sharp green eyes that when they met his he couldn't help but feel his stomach grow fluttery and his palms began to sweat. His throat stalled and he stared at her. There was an air of mystery to her, and a part of him thought she looked slightly familiar.

_Oh! _he thought. _This was the Black Widow, one of the Avengers from New York. _He recognized her from footage of the attack.

It was only when Bruce Banner spoke directly to her that his mind came back to reality.

"Hey Natasha," he said. "You missed meeting Onyx's family and team."

She stopped in front of them and smiled slightly. It was more of just a slight turning-up of her lips, but Reid thought she looked even more beautiful that way.

"Oh, really?" she said. "Well, at least now we won't have problems with him trying to disobey Fury's orders."

Banner rolled his eyes. "I'm just glad he won't be dragging Stark into my lab in the middle of the night," he grumbled. "Ddi you hear the two of them going on when they decided to drink _Absinthe_?"

Natasha nodded, then shifted her attention to Reid. "Who's the new kid?" she asked, surveying him up and down.

A fierce blush lit up Reid's face. He began to stammer uncontrollably. "Oh, well, I'm — my name is Spencer — _Doctor_ Spencer Reid!" He cleared his throat and straightened his back. "I'm a doctor."

Natasha raised her brows and nodded. "Okay, then," she said, looking away from Reid and moving to go around the group. "Good to meet you, Dr. Reid. I'm going to go meet everyone else." She nodded in a very professional manner before walking around them. "Let us know if you find the signal anywhere other than Shang-hai. Fury is sending us out there and I would really rather not go that far if the signal shows up somewhere else." Reid just stared after her, entranced by the light reflecting off her red curls.

"Will do." Banner motioned for them to follow him to the end of the hall. He punched in the code to open it, and they entered the extremely well-lit, stark-white laboratory with the best gear in availability. Reid looked around in wonder.

"This is incredible," he breathed. All around were beeping machines and the view from the windows showed a gorgeous view of the sky. He went towards one of the screens that showed the globe in a glowing neon blue light. Glancing at Jane Foster, he asked, "What does this map show?"

She went to join him and pointed at Shang-hai. "When it gets a signal from the unique radiation signature, this lights up," she explained. She grabbed his upper arm and pulled him away. "But now, we need you to help with this machine that will make it easier to track the signal. Since you have a degree from MIT in engineering, we thought you might be able to help."

Pushing the beautiful auburn-haired Natasha from his mind, Reid set his messenger bag down, loosened his tie, and nodded. "I'm ready to work," he said confidently.

XXXXX

_**Tony**_

Tony couldn't keep his face from smirking as the BAU team started tossing ideas out into the area on what they thought about the psyche of Bellaria. The blonde he had been conversing with was a fiery force to be reckoned with. He was going to do anything and everything to get to her.

"Well it's clear there's something that's led this woman to be on a path to revenge," the stoic leader of the group, Aaron Hotchner said. "You were sent this, so she's not concerned with hiding her identity."

Agent Rossi shook his head. "Then she's got two things: she's got confidence that she won't be caught before her plan is up, and she's got nothing to lose."

Captain America tapped his chin. "Which of those is worse?" he asked.

"It depends," Rossi said. "The bombs are vicious enough that she could be building up to something bigger as she tries to get to this artifact you were telling us about." He frowned as he searched for the name. "What was it called again?"

"The Key of Osiris," Tony said, speaking up, moving around the blonde he was going to try and seduce. "It's the only thing keeping us from being turned into Bellaria's zombie minions." He went to the head of the table and folded his hands behind his back. He was going to put on a show for this. Apparently this blondie had some preconceived notions about him, so he was going to work to show her the genius part of him…see if she could resist the clarity of his brain. "And the longer we have no idea where that key is, the longer it is she can possibly find it." He pressed a button to bring up a photo of the creatures Morgan was having an easy time defeating all by himself. "And let's not forget about these the fact that it gives her time to control people who can call upon more of these lovely things."

The eyes of the BAU went wide at the human-sized bat creature. It's wings appeared leathery and oiled, their claws almost as crimson red as their eyes. "What are _those_?" the agent named Alex Blake asked, her lips turning up in disgust at the creature.

Thor shook his head. "In all the nine realms I've never seen anything like these," he said somberly. "I have only faced them once beside Onyx. They are indeed fierce."

"Which is precisely why we needed these people," Tony said, nodding in the direction of the remaining profilers in the room, his eyes sticking to the blonde's, whose name he still didn't know. She merely glared at him before returning her shocked face to the creatures in the photos. "We need them to figure out how she's thinking so we might find them."

Hotchner nodded. "Well, we need to look at several different factors," he said. "Victimology is obviously random because she doesn't look like she's targeting anyone specific. She seems to be more angry with the world. What is her MO?"

"Bombs and massive amounts of victims," Hawkeye said. "She doesn't care who she kills, and she seems to favor striking in high traffic areas and times."

"So we have a telepath who likes to bomb high traffic areas in London," said Blake, crossing her arms over chest. "What exactly is going on with her eyes?"

"We don't know how long she's been this way," Agent Coulson explained. "That's part of why we need Agent Morgan's wife. None of our techs have been able to find anything on her. They're supposed to be the best in the world, but they can't find anything on her. Apparently, she rivals their skills."

"We need that history, so as soon as Garcia can get to it, we'll be able to know more about her past and about how she might have gotten out of the country," Hotchner said.

The blonde agent who Tony had his eye on spoke up. "What about the object, the Orb? How much do you know about it?" she asked.

"Well, Agent…" Tony stroked his chin and grinned at her. "You know, I don't actually know your name yet, Agent!" He grinned smugly. "What is it?"

She stared at him hardly. "Jareau," she ground out, her jaw set in a grim line.

"Agent Jareau, then," he continued. "About the Orb: it _greatly_ increases the radius in which she can cast her telepathy. Meaning if she gets ahold of the key, she'll take all of our minds, and do whatever she feels like with us." The agent continued to glare at him, even after he'd finished the rundown of what would happen if Bellaria got her hands on the Key.

Rossi crossed his arms over his chest. "She has the potential to turn the world into her own personal playground," he deduced. Turning to Hotchner, he said, "We really need Penelope on this. And Prentiss. She'll have some idea about the Egyptian legend part of this."

Agent Hill nodded. "Okay," she began. "The last place the signal came from is Shang-hai. Director Fury is sending Morgan, Romanoff, Barton, Thor, Cap, and Stark out there tomorrow unless the signal pops up somewhere else on the map. That's where the signal came from last."

"Are you sending us in with them?" Rossi asked curiously.

"If you think you need to go to help with the profile you're creating, then yes," replied Agent Coulson. He looked between everyone as if trying to figure out what they were going to do. It appeared as though Fury had not left him with directions. Sighing, he turned to Hotchner. "What do you need to get to work?"

The serious agent began looking around at all the Avengers around them, his gaze lingering slightly on Tony. It made Tony smirk. He had an inkling the longer stare was because he didn't like the way he kept trying to flirt with Agent Jareau. Clearing his throat, he finally spoke. "We need this table, and if you have a whiteboard, bring it. Other than that, we can work here."

Coulson nodded. "Of course."

"Where are the whiteboards?" Agent Jareau asked. "I'll go fetch one."

Tony jumped forward to speak. "Follow me," he said, waving a hand in her direction. "They're huge roller ones. I'll help."

She blinked at him several times before rolling her eyes. "Fine," she grumbled. "Lead the way." He grinned and started for the sliding doors, the BAU agent following behind him.

"So," he began as they headed down the hallway, "you're part of thunder knuckles' old entourage?" She merely snorted, not bothering to reply. This made him laugh internally. This one was for sure playing hard-to-get. "Why do you seem to have such a problem with me? We've never even met." Pausing for a moment, he thought, _Oh….maybe we _have. It wouldn't be the first time he forgot the name of a woman he'd met, slept with, then left the next morning. It would certainly explain her annoyance with him. "…have we?"

"No!" she said coarsely. "Although it wouldn't surprise me if we had met and you didn't remember who I was."

He put his hand over his heart and turned his head away as if she'd slapped him. "Agent Jareau, you wound me," he said, unable to keep a cocky smirk off his face. As he led them down the hallway to a storage room, he added in a smoother voice, "You _know_, I have a suit that's powered by this glowing blue piece of machinery in my chest here."

A bark of bitter laughter left her lips. "Oh, please," she guffawed. "_That's _how you resort to trying to talk to women and get them to sleep with you?"

He stopped them in front of the storage room where they were going to be getting a whiteboard from. Turning to face her, he grinned. "Yes, that's exactly how I resort to talking to women," he said. "I find that it gets them much quicker when I mention the little fact that I'm a superhero. Ya know, we _are _Earth's mightiest heroes."

She glared at him, crossing her arms defiantly over her chest. She leaned her shoulder against the wall in front of the storage room and cocked a brow. "_Wow_," she breathed. "You really don't know how to act around a woman, do you?"

"Oh, I know how to talk to them," he said, leaning closer to her. "I also find it helps to mention the fact that in addition to being a genius, billionaire, playboy, I'm a _raging _philanthropist."

"Is that right?" she asked, visibly unimpressed.

He nodded, keeping his smooth expression on his face. "Yes, it is," he said. "I do all sorts of work with the less fortunate. Even did a project with Angelina Jolie. Helping kids in…" He paused, trying to remember which country it had been. "…er, in…" He rolled his eyes. "It was somewhere in Africa."

She leaned closer to him and a smile started to creep up her face. "You know, there is something I wanted to say to you," she said. "You know, if I ever met you, I mean."

Tony arched a brow. "Oh?" Inside, though, he couldn't help but think, _So it took a little longer than the usual half an hour, but still, it's happening._

She nodded. "Yeah," she said, her voice growing husky. "Come closer. I'll tell you." Moving closer, he expected her to say something along the lines of _You can come join me in my room later._ However, when he leaned down to her eye level, instead of sultry words, all he received was a sharp slap to the face. With a stinging buzz remaining on his jaw, Agent Jareau resumed her glare and snapped, "Fuck off, Stark!"

Then she pulled open the door to the storage closet to pull out one of the whiteboards, leaving Tony in the hall, nursing his sore jaw and thinking, _Damn! Who _is_ this woman?_


	10. Glad You're Not Dead

**Disclaimer: I own nothing.**

**Sorry about the delay on this chapter…I've had TWO papers due this week! So without further adieu, we have more Morcia loving and JJ thinking about a certain superhero. Thank you for the reviews and I hope you'll take a moment to review this one :)**

_**JJ**_

"God, what a dick!" JJ swore when she had chased Tony Stark off finally. She had excused herself to go to the restroom and was now heading back to the central room where they were working on the profile. Derek and Penelope had yet to return, but as she was heading back down the hallway, a door slid open to reveal the tall Nick Fury and the Morgan family. Talia was still clinging to her father while Penelope looked at them with happy tears in her eyes. She looked like she was no the verge of crying, but the tears were ones of happiness.

Seeing the Morgan family reunited was the most beautiful sight JJ had seen in a long time. Poor Talia had been so angry and restless, while Penelope had been lost in her own grief, barely able to function. But now, they had Derek back. Their family was whole once more.

They caught sight of her and Derek grinned widely. JJ had missed seeing her comrade's face and the brilliant grins he would give everyone to cheer them all up. She had no idea what the future would hold for him — based on the fact he was still alive, it was likely there was some crazy-Avengers reason for _why_ — but all she knew was he was there. Penelope and Talia were going to be happy again, and that was all that mattered.

"Hey, Jareau," Derek said as they came into the hall and started to walk alongside her.

She patted his back. "Hey yourself," she said. "Good to see you're alive."

"I suppose it's thanks to _him,_" Penelope snapped passive aggressively, directing her glare at Nick Fury. "I'd be a hell of a lot more grateful if you didn't _keep _him from us!"

JJ, who still didn't know the story behind what had happened, merely glanced over at Fury and cocked a brow. Although as she looked at the one-eyed man, she could tell that he was amused by Penelope; he liked her, that much was obvious. Maybe she'd get offered a job with the S.H.I.E.L.D. technical analysts… It would break JJ's heart if her best friend went to work for a government agency other than the BAU, but if she got to be with Derek and be happy, who was JJ to care?

Agent Hill was approaching them, and Fury gestured to her. "Agent Hill will take your daughter to a secure area where she can be while we work," he explained. Seeing Penelope's sharp look, he added, "It's in a completely separate area from any labs or computers, and she'll have an agent with her at all times." Penelope was still glaring at him and he sighed. "Isn't that enough?"

She sniffed. "Yeah," she relented. "Fine."

Derek halted in the middle of the hall and looked at Talia. "We've got some work to do, but we'll see you tonight," he assured her.

She fixed him with a look reminiscent of his own. "Pinky swear?" She lifted her hand and produced her pinky finger.

He set her down on her feet and linked their fingers. "Pinky swear," he promised.

JJ smiled, feeling tears prick at the back of her own eyes. They wouldn't fall, but they were there, reminding her that she had to call Henry and tell him Derek was still alive. The thought of her son made her heart clench. She hadn't yet thought about it, but a case like this was likely to last longer than she would have wanted it to be away from him. Just her luck: she was away from her son and stuck on an oversized airplane with a man who was very obviously trying to get into her pants. This was going to be a long case.

Talia hugged her parents one last time before linking her fingers through Agent Hill's. "Where are we going, Agent Hill?" she asked curiously. "Do I get to see any…" Her voice trailed off as Hill and her walked away down the hall.

Derek watched his daughter go, a forlorn expression on his face. He turned to look at Fury after a moment and asked, "So have you shown them what we have so far on Bellaria?" He took Penelope's hand, intertwining their fingers, as they started walking back to the central command room.

"Agent Coulson and the rest of them began briefing all of them while we were discussing what happened to you all these months," he explained.

"I went to get a whiteboard for us to work," JJ interjected. "We're all set up and ready to profile the telepath." She met Penelope's eyes and smiled.

"Excellent," Fury said. "And you'll all be ready to go to Shang-hai, I'm assuming?"

Penelope's eyes went wide. "Wait, _what_? What do you mean? Why are you going to China?" she asked sharply. She was panicking, JJ could tell. It was understandable; she had only just gotten Derek back.

Apparently Derek could see that, too. He squeezed her hand. "We can talk about this later," he said. "Right now, we have work to do." Casting her a reassuring look, he leaned down and kissed her softly right before they all stepped back into the central command room. Everyone was bustling around in a manic frenzy. JJ noted that some of the S.H.I.E.L.D. agents looked at Derek rather warily, something she could only assume was because he had done something to scare them. Or it could be the sheer size of him. He'd gained quite a bit of muscle mass since his apparent death.

As soon as Morgan entered the room, the BAU team looked up from what they were doing stopped. Reid, who had gone with the scientists, was absent, but the rest of them looked at him with joyful looks. Rossi dropped everything he was doing and went to stand in front of him. He grasped both sides of his face and planted smacking kisses on both his cheeks. "You _giant_ son of a bitch!" he exclaimed happily. He stepped back and looked at him more closely. "Holy shit. You really have gotten bigger. How the —"

Derek shook his head and laughed. "Long story," he said. "One for another time. Right now we need a working profile." He looked over at his wife. "Baby Girl, we're going to need you to look into —"

She held up her hand to interrupt him. "I know exactly what you want me looking for," she said, winking at him. "I just need to be shown where I'm working." She looked expectantly at Fury, retaining her fierce glare that was likely her look reserved for just him, even though they only just met. "You, one eye! I need a workstation — no need to get me any passwords, I'll be able to hack through any form of security you might have — and whatever elements of the profile you come up with that I can search under. Also, I need caffeine and full access to my husband whenever I want it."

JJ chuckled as Fury's brow raised. "I can do all of that," he told Penelope.

"Excellent," Penelope said haughtily. Her eyes met Derek's once more and she winked as an Agent led her down a ramp and into the central area of computers.

"I always wondered what Thunder Knuckles would be like with his wife."

JJ grumbled under her breath and hurried to help Blake with something so she wouldn't have to listen to Tony Stark's incessant chatter. She opened up the cap of a dry erase marker and started writing the basic ideas they had previously discussed.

"Why does he keep calling you _Thunder Knuckles_?" Blake chortled, turning and crossing her arms to look at Derek. JJ kept her face trained on the whiteboard. She would do anything to avoid Stark and his narcissistic personality. However, she kept her ears open to listen; she, too, was curious about the _Thunder Knuckles _name her best friend's husband had obtained.

Derek snorted. "I see you all have met the illustrious Tony Stark," he said sarcastically.

"To answer your question, ma'am, we call —"

Captain America spoke up. "No, no. There is no we in this situation. _Only _Stark calls him that. The rest of us call him Onyx or Morgan."

"Ignoring my spangly-dressed colleague's unnecessarily harsh words over there," Tony started, "he's called _Thunder Knuckles _because the man packs a powerful punch. It's almost as if he's hitting someone with my suit or our Asgardian's hammer."

"It is true," Thor agreed, crossing his bulky arms across his chest and nodding. "I have seen him show this strength. It's as impressive as some of my fellow warriors back in Asgard."

"But even _more _important," Tony went on, "is he's my drinking buddy. The two of us? We've gotten in to all sorts of crazy shenanigans together."

Derek gritted his teeth, his eyes flicking in the direction of where his wife was getting set up. "Er, Stark," he muttered. "Now would not be the time to talk about this."

JJ couldn't suppress a sharp burst of laughter. She could only imagine the conversations the two of them could have possibly had over the past two months. It was too bad Derek hadn't rubbed off any on Tony. She turned around to ask Hotch a question when Tony Stark's eyes met hers once more. There was a twinkle in them that told her their interactions and her slap to his face weren't going to be the end of their time together. She glared at him harshly, and the look did not go unnoticed by Hotch. The time to deal with that would be later.

Right now she just wanted to begin the profile in more depth.

"Okay," she called out. "Getting back to Bellaria…"

XXXXX

_**Penelope**_

Penelope leaned against the doorway of the second room in Derek's compartments on the Helicarrier, watching as her husband shut the book he was reading to Talia on the couch where she was sleeping. Their daughter was curled up beside him, her eyes getting droopier by the second. She smiled sleepily and yawned. "Thanks for reading to me, Daddy," she murmured, burrowing deep into her covers. "Goodnight."

Derek rose from sitting next to Talia and kissed the top of her head. "Goodnight, Baby Doll," he whispered. "I love you."

"I love you, too," she whispered, her eyes finally closing completely. "I'm glad you're not dead."

Tears filled Penelope's eyes. A chuckle escaped Derek's mouth, and he walked back towards her. He took her hands, kissing both her palms as they returned to his bedroom. Giggling, she fell backwards on the bed as they continued kissing. "I'm glad you're not dead, too," she whispered as he kissed her neck.

Laughing, he stopped kissing her and wrapped her in his arms, moving a lock of her hair out of her face and behind her ear. A sad smile covered his face. "I wanted to tell you," he whispered. "I really did. Fury locked me in a containment cell one day for trying to contact you too many times. I even tried getting ahold of Emily and telling her to tell you."

She silenced him with a kiss. "Derek, you have nothing to apologize for. I know you tried to tell us because I know you wouldn't stop until you told us," she insisted, pulling him closer. She wrapped her arms around his torso and rested her head against his broad chest. "How do you feel with this…" For a moment she couldn't find the words. She was still trying to wrap her head around the idea of her _husband _being an Avenger. "…with the serum in your body?" she finished. "Are you okay? Does — does it hurt?"

He stroked his thumb over her cheek. "No," he said. "I feel completely normal. That's a plus." He smiled softly. "But what is the biggest plus of all is having you back. You and Talia."

"We missed you so much," she said against the flesh of his neck. "I can't believe that _dick_ would keep you away from us! God, what is his problem?"

Derek chuckled. "Believe me," he said, "I don't know if anyone knows what Nick Fury's problem is other than Nick Fury. The man is a closed book. Stark and I —"

She swatted his arm momentarily. "By the way, what are you doing hanging around with Tony _Stark_?" she demanded. "I mean, he's such a…"

"Jackass?" he suggested.

"Yeah, that," she laughed. "Seriously, he was _eye-humping _JJ earlier. How are you best buddies with him now?"

A contemplative look crossed Derek's face as he looked at the ceiling and ran his fingers up and down her arm. "Stark is…well, he's not what everyone sees him as. We've spent a lot of time together, and he's got something going on. He tries to hide behind the money and the attitude and the whoring around, but in reality he's…lost. I haven't really tried to talk to him about it. I was too caught up in missing you that I never asked." He laughed. "I suppose that makes me a shitty person, not caring about a friend?"

"No," she stated simply. "You're not a shitty person. You were just as lost as him. Did he actually ask you what was going on, or did you just drunkenly tell him things?"

"Er, I guess I just told him things."

She leaned up on her elbows and nodded. "See? You're not a shitty person. That's how _anyone _would react." She smiled and kissed him. "We missed you so much," she whispered softly. "Talia was so…she…" At that point she truly had lost her tongue. Their daughter's behavior over the past two months had been erratic, to say the least. The final straw that had made her realize something was really wrong was the fight she'd gotten into at school.

Derek breathed out a sigh. "How did she get that shiner?" he asked. "She refused to tell me."

Tears filled Penelope's eyes. "A nasty little girl at school told her that real girls have daddies, and that because you were gone Talia didn't have one," she explained tearfully. "I was so —" She cut off her speech abruptly before taking a long, slow inhale. "Before I got pregnant with Tal — hell, even before we started dating and were just friends — my single worst fear was losing you. Now, I have another worst fear, and that's someone hurting our baby."

Derek turned on his side to look Penelope directly in the eye. "No one, and I mean no one, will be hurting our girl," he vowed. "I won't let them, you won't let them, and — with some coaxing — neither will Stark. I think I've got some pull there."

"Oh? You've got enough pull with Ironman from the Avengers that you think he could stand up to our daughter's bully?" she giggled, sitting up on her side so she was eye level with him. She arched a brow at him.

He leaned closer and winked. "Drinking buddies will do that shit for one another," he assured her, slinking an arm around her waist and pulling her body closer to his.

"Hmm," she giggled. Instead of kissing him, though, she pushed him so he was laying flat on his back and she was straddling his waist. A ferocity took over her, a massive burst of lust washing through her body as she started to tug his shirt up over his chest. Once his shirt was up and she tossed it across the room, she observed her husband's flawless body, now bigger and more muscular. She met his eyes, lightly pressing her hands to his torso. "The serum worked so well," she breathed in amazement. "It even took away your scars from before." She continued to touch every inch of him she could, familiarizing herself once again with his beautiful skin. "God, you're exquisite." Her voice had gone hoarse and she wanted nothing more than to crawl within his skin and make them one. Arousal was taking over. Leaning down, she suspended herself over him and growled, "I love you."

Grasping her hips in his hands, he looked up into her eyes, love and trust shining in the onyx orbs she loved so much. "I love you, too, Baby Girl," he whispered as he helped her pull her own shirt off.


	11. Too Much Sugar

**Disclaimer: I own nothing.**

**Thanks to all of you who have been reading, reviewing, or both! I appreciate it :) This chapter is from the POVs of Reid and Black Widow. Enjoy and please review if you have a moment!**

_**Reid**_

Spencer woke up after a fitful night of little sleep. He and the rest of the team had been given a series of compartments near Morgan's rooms. However, none of them had awoken from their sleep yet. They were all snoozing soundly, Emily included. She had arrived shortly after they had all been set up and all of them went straight into building a profile. Spencer himself had only seen her later when they got dinner in the commissary where many of the S.H.I.E.L.D. agents were eating. But even though they were happy to be reunited with Emily, Derek was alive, and he was getting to work with some of the top physicists in the world. Yet he couldn't sleep.

The whole case was confusing the hell out of him. All through the day and into the night he searched for any connections that could help them find the Key of Osiris and each time he did he came up with nothing. There were hardly any references to it in the lore they read, and there were absolutely no clues on where to look for it.

They needed to find someone who might actually know something. And he didn't think they were going to find anything in the history books.

He dressed quickly and began to make his way towards the kitchen to start coffee. The smell of the coffee grounds helped his brain clear up, and slowly his mouth began to water. Yeah. He needed coffee. It was what would get him through the day. And so far he had a long day ahead of him.

Once the pot was full, Spencer poured it into a mug and grabbed the sugar from a cabinet. He opened it and started pouring it into his coffee. As he was pouring the sugar in a steady stream, a voice spoke behind him.

"Would you like some coffee to go along with your sugar?"

Startled, Spencer jumped and turned around, dropping the sugar to the linoleum floor. Heading up to the counter to stand next to him, Agent Natasha Romanoff — the Black Widow — pulled out her own mug and leaned over him to take the coffeepot. He tensed up at the invasion of his personal space. The scent of her — subtle vanilla and jasmine — filled his nose and immediately he felt the urge to back up. He was rooted in place, though, unable to move his feet. Only when she had the coffeepot and moved out of his space did he relax.

They stood in silence, Spencer stirring his spoon through his coffee and trying to focus on the steam even though all he wanted to do was look over at Agent Romanoff. She was pouring the coffee into the mug and brought cup to her lips; she drank her coffee black.

As they were standing in the kitchen, both of them still facing the counter, he decided to try and start a conversation. "So, uh, how do you like working with S.H.I.E.L.D.? Is it a good job?" When she didn't respond, he bit his lip and tried again. "Do you like being an Avenger?"

Turning to look at him finally, she smirked. "Small talk? Really?"

He shrugged. "Uh, I guess so," he said nervously, bringing his mug to his lips and sipping the scalding liquid. His eyes went wide as the coffee burned his tongue.

Natasha looked at him evenly. "You're not very good at it," she said bluntly.

Spencer gulped. "Er, well…" His voice trailed off. How would he explain that he wasn't very good with conversation because he didn't necessarily talk with that many people? Many statistics entered his mind about people with high IQs having difficult times with making conversations with people, but he kept them to himself. He didn't want to dig himself into an even deeper hole. "Do you know what time we'll be heading to Shanghai?" he asked. Better to just talk about something professional instead of personal matters, he figured. "So, what time do we leave for Shanghai?" he asked. "I have a few more things I want to look up before we go."

"We leave at 0800, so I suggest you look up what you need to fast," she advised, starting for the doorway.

He frowned. "Er, that's at least two and a half hours from now," he said, looking at his watch in confusion.

She halted a moment and turned around to face him again. "The briefing we have before this will get you and your team geared up for it," she said.

"Geared up? Geared up for what?"

"For what you're going to see when we get there," she explained. "These aren't your serial killers, Dr. Reid. They may be just as evil, but the only reason we brought you in was because we needed help profiling the telepath. She won't be in Shanghai, but her pals will be. There's nothing you can profile about them. We can only kill them. I hope you're ready for that."

Then she was gone, her fiery red hair the last thing Spencer saw before she disappeared completely.

His brow furrowed in confusion. _How does she keep disappearing so quickly?_ he thought to himself as he put down the spoon he had been overusing just a few moments ago. Shaking his head, he pondered over her words about what they were supposedly about to be introduced to. He could only imagine what it would be. Up until the previous year he had not thought much of the possibility of alien life, but the destruction of Manhattan certainly brought the idea to all their minds.

When he entered the lab, already in there, working hard at a large screen, was Bruce Banner. He looked over his shoulder at Spencer and nodded to him. "Morning, Dr. Reid." He turned back to the screen and added, "Can't sleep either?"

"No, not really." Spencer took a sip of his coffee and put it down on the window ledge. He went to join Banner to stare at the screen along with him. It was hard to believe the man beside him could turn into the giant green monster that was the Hulk. He'd been nothing but the image of calm and collected since Spencer had first met him. "Is there anything here?"

Banner shook his head. "No," he said, glancing over at Reid. He chuckled momentarily. "What? Nothing to ask me?"

Spencer frowned and looked around before returning his gaze to Banner. "Er…no?"

"Usually people like you will ask me about the…the other guy," he elaborated.

"Eh, there's not much I have to say about that," Spencer replied. "I'm just here to work. I find the idea of you turning into…_that _to be very interesting, I don't really think it's relevant right now." He arched a brow. "Why? Did one of us say something to you?"

Banner's lips turned up just slightly. "Morgan's wife asked me if I was the guy who 'broke Harlem'," he said.

"Ah, well," Spencer said. "That's Garcia for you. Sometimes words just come out of her mouth like that. It's not intentional."

"I knew that. Morgan talked about her enough, so I wasn't too surprised. It was kinda like I already met her. " Looking up at the ceiling, he added, "Well, he didn't exactly tell me about her. It was Stark. Although the two of them decided to do their drinking in here with me. I just ended up hearing the whole of every conversation they had while drunk."

"Ah. Morgan always has started spilling his guts when he gets drunk." Spencer observed the man in front of him. It was easy to understand why he was so docile. With the possibility of him getting angry leading to major destruction and — in some cases — death, it made sense why he would be like that.

Unlike Natasha. She wasn't quite as easy to understand. Then again, she was a spy. Spies had to keep better lids on their personalities, lest their identities be discovered. He shook his head vigorously. He really needed to get his mind back on track. They had a woman to profile and an ancient relic to locate. It required more of his attention than Agent Romanoff. Picking up his coffee again, he sipped it and went to sit back with his mountain of books. He doubted he would find anything, but it was worth a shot. He wanted to make sure he hadn't glazed over any details of the Egyptian history that might match up with the profile.

"I'm just going to get back to searching through these texts," he said to Banner. "I'm looking to see if anything matches the profile."

Banner nodded. "Let me know if you need anything…or if you find some helpful information," he said as Spencer began to open one of the giant dusty texts.

XXXXX

_**Natasha**_

"We're landing soon," Barton called to the back from his seat at the front of the jet. "Everyone briefed back there?"

Natasha glanced around at the agents of the BAU who had just been told about all the possible scenarios when they landed. The creatures that most puzzled the FBI profilers most were the leathery, winged-creatures that no one knew the name of yet. With any luck they would find something on them, maybe wrangle one up to study. She studied the reactions of the agents onboard, all of them now dressed in the S.H.I.E.L.D. combat suits. They were intently studying the digital files they had been given.

"These things, the ones with wings, how do we take them down if we come into contact with one of them?" Emily Prentiss asked, glancing up at any member of S.H.I.E.L.D. in front of her. Thor and Stark and chosen to fly ahead of them and would meet them at the landing sight, but Cap had come with both Natasha and Barton, while Banner remained on the Helicarrier.

"If you can, try not to engage with them directly," Cap told them. "You all, Barton, and Romanoff should try staying back and just using your firepower. These things are mean. Those claws they have will rake over someone in a second if you're not careful."

Rossi nodded. "Good to know."

A beeping sounded over the jet's intercom. "We've got an incoming call from the Helicarrier," Barton called. "Patching them through now."

"Hey all my superheroes, known and just-met!" The voice of Morgan's wife filled the jet and no one missed the smile that crossed his face when he heard it.

"What do you have for us, Garcia?" Hotch asked.

A huffed sigh was heard over the intercom. "Okay, so I've been looking into anything and everything about this woman," she said. "Facial-recognition software hasn't been able to find anything about who she is and if her name really _is_ Bellaria, but your intrepid blonde hacker found you something about how she left the country."

Natasha frowned. "That was fast. How did you find it?"

"I _ripped _through as much air travel records as I could to try and find out how she left and I eventually found something I'm fairly sure is concrete because I looked over the footage from Heathrow, too. I've found out how she got out. I looked strictly at tickets bought within the past week and under tickets purchased at the last minute for women traveling to Shang-hai. I found only one match: _two _tickets — one for a young woman, another for a middle-aged man — bought at the last minute for them to travel to Shang-hai. The woman's name is Belle Martin, and her older brother, Nigel."

Blake frowned. "So they changed the name of her, but not of her second in command?"

Natasha nodded. "They probably thought they're untouchable," she said. "Anything else? Maybe about who she is?"

"Unfortunately, no," Penelope sighed. "I'm still trying to figure out who she might have been. But now that I have a fake name, maybe I'll have something to work with. Until then, I'm going to let you all do your thing and hit you back if I have anything."

Morgan grinned. "Thanks, Baby Girl," he said.

"My pleasure," she purred before Barton shut the intercom off as they were descending onto a rain-slicked runway.

The jet landed and everyone disembarked to find a suited-up Stark and Thor waiting for them. Stark's helmet moved from his face so they could see him and he waved. "Good to see you all could make it," he said sarcastically.

Ignoring him, Cap looked to Coulson. "Mind if I start the plan?" Coulson nodded and Cap motioned for them all to listen as he gave his plan. "We're splitting up to come at them from all sides," he explained. "The site where the coordinates landed is a factory. It's in the full swing of the work day, so we need to be careful and avoid any civilian casualties."

"And since this woman is all about the casualties, we've got our work cut out for us," Hotch said. He looked at Captain America. "How are we splitting up?"

Cap nodded. "We'll split into pairs: Agent Rossi, I want you with Barton; Onyx, you and Agent Hotchner; Coulson, you go with Agent Blake; Stark, you and Agent Jareau; Romanoff, you and Dr. Reid; and Agent Prentiss, you'll be with me." He looked around the whole group. "Everyone clear?"

Natasha glanced in the direction of the awkward doctor who she hardly knew. As soon as their eyes met, he averted his gaze. She had to resist smirking. When she resumed looking at Cap, she smiled. "We're ready to get going. What direction are we coming from?"

"You and Dr. Reid come up to the factory from the South," Cap said.

"See you all there," she said, motioning for Reid to follow her. "C'mon, Doctor. There's a cycle in one of those garages over there. We'll take it to the factory."

He frowned. "Er, I don't know how to ride a motorcycle," he admitted quietly.

"Well, then you'll just have to hang on to me," she said nonchalantly.


End file.
